After three years away (It is *AMAZING*---how fast time "rockets by," working on a PhD. . . .  :( :( ), I got to visit once again, my first mine fire! Fire!! FIRE!!!! (Um, heh-heh.  Sorry about that.  :) )---Centralia.

      Things seem to be "quieting down a bit"---at least from what one gets to see on the surface.  A view to the east:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A closer shot of some of the fumes venting, facing north-east:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Further into the body of the "main surface fire"---facing south-east.  It doesn't show very well in the picture, but this bank is really quite steep---[it was] produced by subsidence.

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      I was *REALLY* bummed--and quite surprised--to learn that this tree had died.  :( :( :( :( It had survived atop a VERY large anthracite (the highest heat-yielding grade of coal) mine fire for QUITE some time.  (!) -Many a nighttime's meanderings at Centralia, this tree was seen---its branches ofttimes silhouetting the moon. . . .

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      :( :( :( :(

      Hmm. I'm not 100% percent sure just where this one was [from]. . . .  -A view of a vent:

      (Oh, during the "proofread" (for lack of a better thing to call it), I realized that this view was of the edge of the honkin' HUGE subsidence pit (more [on this] below)---to the west of the "main [surface] fire region."  -[This picture was] Taken facing just south of west.)

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      :)

      A view of vent, farther in [to the "body of the main [surface] fire"---facing south-east:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      The scope/perspective of this is hard to visualize(/imagine! :) ).  This is a view, facing almost due south, of a [subsidence] pit---over 70 feet deep.  (!!)

      As I mentioned above, things seem to be "quieting down"---at least from what one can see from the surface.  There doesn't seem to be any fumes rising from this pit at all.  The scale of this bu . . . beggar is almost inconceivable---they've filled this thing almost entirely at least three times.  (!!!!) The amount of "free space" (burnt coal) to empty such a volume is . . . mind-boggling.

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      (!!!!)

      A view back east---toward(s) the "main body of the surface fire":

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      A closer look:

   (For the high resolution original, click here.)

      Yep. Things seem ta' be "quieting down," all right.  -Times before when this entire "little valley" would be a'-venting.

      Note that it was produced by subsidence.  -Prior to the fire, this was actually a hill.  (!!)

On to more pictures of Centralia, 'n stuff.