Coal In Centralia Research Paper

How is coal formed?

Hundreds of millions of years ago we had many trees, and other plant matter live near bodies of water and or swamps. After these trees and plants died over time were buried in the bottom of the lake or ocean, which built up many layers of dead plant material. Over millions of years drastic changes to the earths surface can cause the swamp to get flooded and buried. Once buried the dead plant material collect and become “peat,” a type of organic matter. Sediment than forms, which compresses the peat into a soft and brown coal, called “lignite.” The sediment collects on top over time and creates more heat and pressure. As heat and pressure build up on the lignite it transforms into black coal or anthracite coal. These types of coal take millions of years to form. As this forms we now have a fuel source that we can collect and use.

What

Centralia Pennsylvania in the 1960’s was home to 2.761 working class families. Although it was a small community it was a growing town with established churches, schools, banks, hotels grocery stores and salons. Because there was an abundant amount of anthracite coal deep in the rock along the countryside Centralia was known to be a mining town. Many of the men, fathers and young boys worked in the coalmines. The coal that was mined out of the mines served as a essential fuel source for the town. In 1962 right before the memorial holiday a couple of the towns firefighters decided to burn the excess garbage in a landfill behind an old cemetery to prevent the town from having a bad odor when people came to visit from neighboring counties. Unfortunately right under where they were burning the coal was anthracite coal, which became ignited as the fire started. The coal burned and spread 100 meters across the coalmine. Firefighters tried for years to put out the fire by flooding the mines but