The Fire Under Pennsylvania That Won't Go Out

In eastern Pennsylvania the ground has been on fire since 1962. The fire is in the coal, and the coal was once a forest that grew about 300 million years ago, long before the first dinosaurs. Thirty facts, counting down: the zigzag ridges you can see from space, rivers that cut straight through mountains, the well that started the oil age, a boomtown that vanished, rocks that ring like bells, the battlefield built on magma, the town above the fire, and the collision with Africa that crumpled the state and baked its coal into anthracite. Where are you watching from? If you've driven through the Turnpike tunnels, ridden a train around the Horseshoe Curve, or your family worked the mines, the breakers or the oil fields, tell us in the comments. Please don't visit Centralia's fire area: the state warns the ground can collapse without warning. Subscribe to Beneath The States for more places that are hiding something. CHAPTERS 0:00 Pennsylvania: a forest older than the dinosaurs 0:39 30. The combed state 1:16 29. Rivers that go straight through mountains 2:07 28. The canyon that runs backwards 2:45 27. The valley that funneled a flood 3:39 26. The bridge a tornado knocked down 4:23 25. The curve the Nazis wanted to blow up 5:02 24. A highway in a dead railroad's tunnels 5:42 23. The well that started the oil age 6:29 22. The boomtown that vanished 7:22 21. Rocks that ring like bells 8:10 20. The boulder field that outlived the ice ages 8:52 19. The river that used to flow to Lake Erie 9:33 18. The battlefield built on magma 10:14 17. One of the first animals with four limbs 11:01 16. A gas field three hundred and ninety million years old 11:46 15. Rivers the color of rust 12:23 14. The river that swallowed a mine 13:00 13. The coal that built America 13:54 12. The town above the fire 14:52 11. Centralia isn't even the oldest 15:40 10. A chapter of Earth's history named after Pennsylvania 16:17 9. The swamp south of the equator 16:59 8. Africa arrives 17:31 7. Mountains like the Andes 18:10 6. The comb 18:54 5. Baked into anthracite 19:41 4. The older sea underneath 20:30 3. The continent tears apart 21:26 2. The ice finishes the job 22:17 1. A forest older than the dinosaurs, still burning 23:24 The whole countdown in one breath