Hello there and welcome to another bizarre phenomenon post! This week I got you a mysterious and beautiful sight... as always! 😜

For this episode I'm gonna need you to put your hiking boots on and follow me to Chestnut Ridge Park (Western New York). We are heading to the Shale Creek Preserve, an area rich in... shale rock. As we are walking through the trees, I exclaim: 

- Hey, someone told me there is a waterfall here! Wanna look for it?

- Sure!

- Cool, let's try to find the water then.

And we are now walking in the forest, listening carefully to find running water.

- Can you hear that?

- Yes, I think I can!

- We must be close, hurry up!

We keep walking and walking, going towards the sound, drawn like a moth to a... flame. After a few minutes, we have managed to track the flowing stream and here we stand now, stunned in front of a beautiful waterfall that's spraying water over our sweaty faces.

- You were right to have brought me here.

- I told you it would be pretty.

- I think it smells kind of weird, though.

- I think so too.

- Hey, what's that over there?

- Where?

- That light behind the water!

- I can't see any li... Aaay! Is this what it looks it is?

- Fire?

- Beautiful! 

- But I don't get it! How can a fire burn in the waterfall?

- Uhm, it's not exactly "in" the waterfall. Look closer, it's "behind" it.

- Huh! And where did it come from? 

Image from: wikipedia.org - Courtesy of: Mpmajewski - License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Ok, I'll give you the details

In a grotto behind the Eternal Flame Falls of the Shale Creek Preserve natural gas is spewing out of the ground. One can easily light it up and the flame will keep burning on end. This is the reason why we call such occurrences "Eternal Flames".

Shale is the key here

Eternal flames are not very common, but they can be found where natural gas is leaking out the of the ground. Natural gas is typically produced when organic matter (dead plants and animals) is compressed underground and heated up extremely. Heat and pressure can turn dead organic matter into gas, which makes a great energy resource (you can literally harvest energy "out of thin air"). This gas can later find its way out through cracks and fissures in the underground and escape into the atmosphere (taking part in the greenhouse effect phenomenon). [1, 2, 3, 5]

Geologists back in 2013 (Arndt Schimmelmann and Maria Mastalerz of the Indiana Geological Survey in collaboration with Giuseppe Etiope, researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Italy) were studying the natural gas emissions in the broader Eternal Flame Falls area and trying to measure their contribution to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It was then that they made some really interesting discoveries (which they published on the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology, May 2013). [1, 2, 3, 4]

First, instead of finding more methane (like it's normally expected in natural gas seeps), they found more propane and ethane (35% of the total gas volume). Note that methane (a basic "ingredient" of natural gas) adds to the greenhouse effect, as it has the ability to trap heat almost 20 times more than carbon dioxide. Therefore, when there is a chance, natural gas emissions are turned into "eternal flames" in order to turn methane into CO2 through burning and prevent the extra heating of the atmosphere. Scientists also found several other micro seeps of natural gas around the place and came to the conclusion that the gas there came from... shale (more specifically, Rhinestreet shale). [1, 2, 3, 4]

Shale needs high temperatures to break down (as high as about 100°C or more) its carbon structures into smaller, natural gas structures. The "weird" thing geologists observed in the Shale Creek Preserve was that natural gas was being produced in a lot cooler temperatures and out of shale that was relatively younger and shallower (400 m) than the shale that usually produces natural gas. All this could imply that there is a catalyst which allows for the rock to break down into gas, making this eternal flame unique! [1, 2, 3, 4]

Image from: wikipedia.org - Courtesy of: Rory Szwed - Released in the Public Domain

Unique and promising

While the process of gas production out of shale was not anything new in theory, it is a mechanism that requires more studying to understand it. It can also imply that the process might happen elsewhere in the world and there might be more shale gas reserves which we are unaware of. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Where else can I find one?

Naturally occurring eternal flames may be rare, but they are scattered all around the globe. Some are big, others are small and you may find them in: Yanartaş in Olympos National Park, Turkey; Flaming Geyser State Park in Washington, USA; Baba Gurgur in Iraq; the Door to Hell in Turkmenistan (featured in a past episode of this series); Yanar Dag in Azerbaijan and a few more. [5]

Sometimes people leave worse burn marks...

Visitors at the Eternal Flames Fall seem to have left their mark in the place. Once attendance grew, so did the amount of litter and incidents of vandalism around the area. There were even attempts to build a disc golf course near the Falls (that wold involve deforestation of the area), but luckily their plans were stopped. [1, 6] 

Eternal flames are beautiful wherever they happen. They are one of the numerous miracles this planet has to offer to our insatiable eyes and souls. And even if a flame ever goes out, the next passer-by who knows its location can relight it easily and let it be a beacon for the wanderers, the lost ones who are struggling to find their place on Earth... 

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References

[1] wikipedia.org
[2] sciencealert2014.com
[3] livescience.com
[4] newsinfo.iu.edu
[5] wikipedia.org
[6] orchardpark.wgrz.com

Thank you so much for your time!

Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!