This, get ready, is a very old fire.
According to its authors, it has been burning continuously since 4,000 B.C. and is “probably the most extensive fire in the world,” with no sign of stopping — which should come as little surprise.
The fire is believed to have been located in China’s Plateau in a place called Huangpu Spring, where fires have been burning continuously for millennia, according to research conducted by Charles Tomlinson. The fire is estimated to have become increasingly fierce as the millennia passed. The researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, say that it has been hard to pinpoint where the fire began but that it started at the end of the Mausoleum of the Great Emperor Zhao Ta. By analyzing wind patterns in the area, they believe that it has been burning for hundreds of years.
“No fire anywhere else in the world is so extensive and so active,” Tomlinson said in a press release. “Climatologically speaking, no fire anywhere else in the world is this busy.”
The fire has spread slowly over time but is still present in the mountains, which were first discovered back in 2002, not far from the Mausoleum of the Great Emperor Zhao Ta.
This is one of the most ancient fires in the world that has been burning for 4,000 years https://t.co/6CE78g2SF7 pic.twitter.com/EvIDgEir1l — National Geographic (@NatGeo) September 22, 2016
Read the full story at Daily Mail.
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