A New Centralia in SNJ?

Jul 12, 2006
1,351
341
Gloucester City, NJ
It's the 1st I've heard of this still occurring.

Screenshot_20240825-194146.png
 
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Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
I have walked all over that area in the past three weeks and saw nothing.
 
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Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
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Update: I was driving on the dirt portion of Tuckerton from High Crossing to Bulldozer Road yesterday and today, and the smell of smoke is exceptionally strong. So there is something burning underground as mentioned above.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,661
4,838
Pines; Bamber area
Ha, Centralia in the Pine Barrens? How 'bout this lignite article from January 03, 1885, excerpted from the May's Landing Record (p3, v8, n13)?

S-M
That is very insteresting to me. They called it "the stuff" :). If it's in an advanced stage far on its way to being anthracite, did it surpass bituminous already, which takes 100 to 300 millions of years to form? From a government site: "Lignite is crumbly and has high moisture content, which contributes to its low heating value".

I suppose the opinion that "a larger deposit exists further down" was spoken by the butcher, who gives an opinion on everything, and he is usually ignored.

Just having some fun with it Mark, but it is an interesting article.
 

Spung-Man

Piney
Jan 5, 2009
1,000
729
65
Richland, NJ
www.researchgate.net
That is very insteresting to me. They called it "the stuff" :). If it's in an advanced stage far on its way to being anthracite, did it surpass bituminous already, which takes 100 to 300 millions of years to form? From a government site: "Lignite is crumbly and has high moisture content, which contributes to its low heating value".

I suppose the opinion that "a larger deposit exists further down" was spoken by the butcher, who gives an opinion on everything, and he is usually ignored.

Just having some fun with it Mark, but it is an interesting article.
As I understand, lignite seams can burn underground just like coal seams. That said, I highly doubt this could happen here. The Egg Harbor City material is probably Legler lignite, a lignitic clay named for the hamlet just above the Air Station at Lakehurst. It is a middle-Miocene Cohansey formation deposit. You can see a photo of it in an exposure on Fig. 5 of Sugarman et al. (2016, Bedrock Geologic Map of the Lakehurst Quadrangle, Ocean County, New Jersey). The peaty material as shown is interpreted as a salt-water-marsh deposit within a barrier island sequence—


The report states,

“Cores taken near Mays Landing, New Jersey (Owens and others, 1988) show Cohansey and Kirkwood palynomorphs very similar to those reported by Rachele (1976) and Greller and Rachele (1983) from the Legler lignite (fig. 5) found in the Cohansey Formation in this quadrangle, and indicate that the two formations are close in age. As the upper part of the Kirkwood is middle Miocene, the Cohansey is also middle Miocene. Pollen in the Legler lignite is dominated by oak and pine, and suggests a warmer, wetter climate than at present (Rachele, 1976)."

For peats' sake,
S-M
 
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