Petey of Lone Tree
Jedi
I recently received the following message from 2Truthy, one of my fellow contributors at the Blondesense blogsite:
"Hey! you sent me a link to a site about the mysterious fires during NON-FIRE SEASON here in the normally pristine skies of CA last month. Here is an interesting story in today's SJM:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10078748?source=most_viewed
I don't recall exactly which link, or links, I sent, but they were most likely garnered from the many that are available in the left column of the SOTT news page. The quoted article follows:
"Hey! you sent me a link to a site about the mysterious fires during NON-FIRE SEASON here in the normally pristine skies of CA last month. Here is an interesting story in today's SJM:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10078748?source=most_viewed
I don't recall exactly which link, or links, I sent, but they were most likely garnered from the many that are available in the left column of the SOTT news page. The quoted article follows:
Mystified firefighters monitoring patch of ground where temperature reached 812 degrees
Ventura County Star
Article Launched: 08/02/2008 09:11:29 AM PDT
County firefighters are monitoring a patch of land north of Fillmore where the ground temperature climbed to 812 degrees on Friday for unknown reasons.
Possible theories include that natural hydrocarbons such as oil or gas are burning deep in the earth. But nobody knows for sure what might have ignited the materials.
"We are a little perplexed at this point, to tell you the truth," said David Panaro, a geologist with the Ventura County Watershed Protection, who was one of a few scientists called in to help solve the mystery. "This is not your usual geological detective story."
The area has recorded high heat at least five times since 1987, said Allen King, a retired geologist with the U.S. Forest Service, who also surveyed the scene where small streams of smoke wafted from cracks in the ground. The area is on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and leased by an oil company.
On Friday, the Ventura County Fire Department cleared the brush near the fumes and cut a fire line around the area to ensure a fire didn't start from the heat.
King said it's possible the blaze was started by another fire on the ground and it ignited a second fire underground. It could be as deep as 100 feet, he said.
Such fires where there are high concentrations of hydrocarbons are not uncommon around the world, he said.