The Smoking Hills of Canada may await like they ’re the product of volcanic activity or unusual geothermal forces deep beneath the Earth ’s surface , but the smoulder landscape is actually the outcome of an ongoing chemical chemical reaction that ’s been escape for thousands of year .
This hellish stack is found on the east sea-coast of Cape Bathurst in Canada ’s Northwest Territories , not far from the Arctic Ocean .
The fastball iscreated bythe ad-lib auto - burning of rocky oil shale in the drop face ’s bouldery layers . Sulfuric mineral , likefool ’s gold , and the chocolate-brown coal alluviation react to the air when parts of the drop-off are eroded away , blow a fuse and bring forth a steady stream of pot .
Another shot of the Smoking Hills in all their blazing glory.Image credit: BreakingTravelNews viaFlickr(CC BY-ND 2.0)
As a result of this reaction , the surrounding arena is pump full of sulfur dioxide , making the air toxic and difficult to breathe . It ’s also dotted with pools of ruby - ruby body of water that ’s improbably acidulent and rich in atomic number 16 . As if this place could n’t get any more diabolic , the high levels of sulphur also mean it reeks of rotting eggs .
“ It ’s just really like blaze on Earth . [ … ] everything about it is utterly atrocious , ” Steve Grasby , a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada who studies the geochemistry of sedimentary rock , told the Government of Canada’sSimply Sciencepodcast .
“ The ground is really raging . It ’s black . Everywhere is fatal . It ’s just kind of mystifying goop that you walk through . So you finger like you ’re going to get stuck in this hot mucky ground . And then there ’s chimneys of smoke coming out . Loud , steam sounds . And then you get this strong smell of atomic number 1 sulfide , " he state .
" You have to wear all this protective gear wheel or else you ’re just going to fire your eyes and your pharynx . It would just probably kill you instantly if you start out too stuffy to these sites , ” Grasby add .
It ’s not clear how long the smoke has been blast out of the hills , but Grasby order the reaction likely start somewhere between 7,000 to 10,000 old age ago when the glacier receded in the area and unearthed this rock ‘n’ roll face .
The drop-off have featured in Indigenous civilisation for centuries , but they were first document by Europeans in 1826 during the voyages of British explorer John Franklin . In 1850 , Irish explorer Robert McClure and his crew set out of the Canadian Arctic looking for the boater from thelost Franklin Expedition . When they discover this smoke , they were said to have been uplift , believing they had identified a smoke sign from the doomed crew . Alas , they were gravely mistaken .
This foreign landscape might appear to be nothing more than a freak trinket , but scientistshave closely studiedthis environment and believe its otherworldly characteristics could aid to rise our agreement of Mars ’s potentiality to hostextraterrestrial life .
