Explosion near Eagle Leads to Mysterious Geologic Slump

This is my first thread so apologies if I do something wrong. I conducted a search but couldn't find this posted anywhere else. Usually when I come across an interesting story I check ATS boards and someone already has it posted.

Explosion near Eagle Alaska

According to the reports this event started on Sep 27 2012 and has grown since. First an explosion was heard in a remote part of Alaska, then 2 weeks later a fire was observed in the area from where the explosion happened. After snowfall on Oct 15 an overflight was conducted and a "slump" was observed with steam coming out form the ground. It was described as a "mini-volcano".

Now I grew up in Alaska and have been to the village of Eagle and this is not a common type geologic activity to say the less. In the article link Scientist are speculating that lightning strikes ignited shale underground and it eventually burned upwards causing the slump/sink hole. Does that make sense to anyone here?

Has anyone else heard of lightning strikes causing this type of event anywhere else?

Does Alaska not have conifers?

Looking at the fossil.energy.gov pdf, it looks like oil shale deposits in Alaska are to the north of Eagle.

That's not to say that the govt actually knows what it is talking about.

The event you described I can only imagine as being a rock from outer space.

I was sitting on the step at the front of the house a few weeks ago when I saw sparks and what looked like hot coals streaming from the sky at about fifty foot in length which disappeared about twenty feet from the ground, across the street from where I was sitting. I was that close. I think it is happening more often than people think.

Could it be underground coal igniting from lightening causing fire?

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by itsallmaya
Could it be underground coal igniting from lightening causing fire?

en.wikipedia.org...

The government is saying that it is oil shale burning underground, but I was looking, and the oil shale deposits appear to be located to the north of Eagle. IDK.

Never doubt the resilience of 'Murka.

www.sott.net... er?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

USGS geologist Marti Miller says it's more likely to be burning oil shale not a burning coal seam. "But we're fairly confident that it's not a hot spring or some other type of volcanic related incident," Miller said. Which will be disappointing news to Pat Sanders in Eagle. "Of course everyone in Eagle is hoping it's going to be a thermal event and we'll end up with a hot springs but maybe that's just because it was 45 below last week," Sanders said.

Dangit! Probably not volcanic. There goes our year-round spa..

On a more serious note, this article does mention that the crater appears to be 150-200ft deep, and IS indeed near a fault line. Since the entire cause is, at this point, speculative.. it COULD be volcanic activity just as easily as it COULD be burning shale oil from lightning.

Then again, they smelled sulfur.. so we might have to call in the Winchester's because there's a new Hell's Gate opening

reply to post by Fimbulvetr


Well crap, thats a new one.

Long story short, some other sites are saying the crater appears to be 150-200ft deep, and it IS near a fault.. so while everything is still speculative - whether its oil-shale burning or volcanic - the weather is too bad at the moment to do a proper investigation.

Funny note: Some of the residents are feeling glum at the prospect of it NOT being volcanic because they wanted a local hot-spring. Gotta love 'Murkins.

'Serious' note: The smell of sulfur in the air.. they should consider calling in the Winchesters to close that new Gate of Hell.

lol^^

the smell of sulphur be a definite sign of volcanic activity? recently it seems they've also been smelling sulphur before earthquakes.

Ok all of you geologists out there here is a PDF study of this area of Alaska. Alot of info on page 10 it talks about volcanic activity in this area, good map, alot of geologic pictures if you go through the whole thing. I wonder if this older study of this area is forgotten since they are dismissing volcanic activity before they get on the ground. I love geology but am not a geologist. So if any of you out there would look at this and see if it gives us any clues re: the area around Eagle.
www.dggs.alaska.gov...

Source: www.dggs.alaska.gov...

I know a few people familiar with the area, I will ask and see what they have to say. It may be a week or so though, so I don't know if I am much help.

IMHO, its not a meteor strike or anything from the sky.

look at the pictures.






.

Somehow I can't help but think Todd Hoffman is involved...


Seriously though I agree with above poster, nothing strong to link it to a meteorite. However underground 'fires' are not all that unusual. Bit of Aluminium foil, butter, salt, pepper, shovel to dig a hole, and we have a nice way to cook a salmon when out camping

I clicked on this thread thinking that an explosion occurred near an eagle in Alaska. It was actually an explosion near Eagle, Alaska that we are talking about here. Got it.

Here is an interesting side note to underground fire.
No big deal though it is only supposed to burn for 500 yrs.
www.treehugger.com... echnology/massive-underground-coal-fire-started-in-1962-still-burns-today.html

Such unwanted coal fires rage or smolder in the United States, South Africa, Australia, China, India and beyond. They are burning in huge volumes in rural China and blazing in a district of India to such a great extent the flames from some surface coal fires are more than 20 feet high. Here in the U.S., they are burning in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Colorado and Wyoming as you read these words.

An underground coal fire is nearly impossible to control, and since many other materials are burned along with the coal, large amounts of other greenhouse gases like methane are released as well. Such fires have raged for decades--and are still raging--in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Originally posted by deadeyedick
Here is an interesting side note to underground fire.
No big deal though it is only supposed to burn for 500 yrs.
www.treehugger.com... echnology/massive-underground-coal-fire-started-in-1962-still-burns-today.html

Such unwanted coal fires rage or smolder in the United States, South Africa, Australia, China, India and beyond. They are burning in huge volumes in rural China and blazing in a district of India to such a great extent the flames from some surface coal fires are more than 20 feet high. Here in the U.S., they are burning in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Colorado and Wyoming as you read these words.

An underground coal fire is nearly impossible to control, and since many other materials are burned along with the coal, large amounts of other greenhouse gases like methane are released as well. Such fires have raged for decades--and are still raging--in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

edit on 9-12-2012 by deadeyedick because: (no reason given)

L-l-l-love that post. So many people want to consider greenhouse warming as something specific to industry and automotive output that they rarely stop to think about the accidents along the way that may have happened decades ago!

Coal fires burning from an underground source unchecked and uncontrolled are just venting awesome amounts of garbage into the atmosphere. Now, that's not to say that humans directly cause global warming, but hell. . . burning a few million years of organic compression certainly doesn't HELP, does it?

There sure is a lot happening in Alaska these days, with underground giant pyramids and whatnot !

reply to post by Carreau


Well, star and flag for an interesting thread. read the article, and I have to wonder.....how can they be so sure it's not something volcanic? They state they don't know till they investigate, but then state they are "fairly confident" that it isn't volcanic activity. Seems a bit conflicted to me. Are they simply trying to avoid scaring people, and not being totally honest? To me, you have an explosion (can occur with volcanoes), fire (also can occur with volcanoes), and a sulfuric smell (big sign of volcanic activity), but they are "fairly confident" that isn't the case? Hmmmm.......

Unknown photo in Alaska

A memeber posted this a few days ago; very unusual picture indeed.. Im not sure if it was labelled hoax or not, Im sure dis-infos have tried their game.. but it goes hand in hand with your thread

Thanks for the information, obviously lots going on in the land of secret government operations

Insert HAARP here >