Earth's Surface Environments
Geog-1000
SPRINGERVILLE, Arizona — An eye-stinging, throat-burning haze of smoke spewing from a gigantic wildfire in eastern Arizona is beginning to stretch as far east as central New Mexico, prompting health officials to warn residents as far away as Albuquerque about potential respiratory hazards.
The 672-square-mile blaze was no longer just an Arizona problem on Saturday as firefighters moved to counter spot fires sprouting up across the state line and lighting their own fires to beat it back. The forest fire remained largely uncontained and officials worried that the return of gusty southwesterly winds during the afternoon could once again threaten small mountain communities that had been largely saved just a few days ago.
Levels of tiny, sooty particles from the smoke in eastern Arizona were nearly 20 times the federal health standard on Saturday. The good news was that down from roughly 40 times higher a day earlier, but it was all at the mercy of the ever-changing winds.
Sunday could get even worse, said Mark Shaffer of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
"Things got better but they're still bad," Shaffer said Saturday.
The microscopic particles, about 1/28th the width of a human hair, can get lodged in the lungs and cause serious health problems, both immediate and long-term, Shaffer said.
"Larger particles, you breathe in and you cough and it tends to get rid of it," he said, adding that the tiny particles get "very, very deep into your system and are very difficult to expel."
Shaffer said the forecast for Sunday was "pretty scary."
Story: Crews protect resort town from Ariz. wildfires
"It's looking very unsettled, and they're predicting winds out of the southeast to the northeast and heavy impact along Interstate 40 ... It's very problematic for both states."
'Smoke billowing into the state'
New Mexico officials were continuously monitoring air quality in their state and are advising residents from the Arizona border to Albuquerque to pay close attention to conditions.
"The people we're most concerned about are obviously those with chronic health conditions but when air quality gets this bad it can actually have negative effects on everybody," said Chris Minnick, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Health.
He said the state planned to issue an alert to residents Saturday to take precautions if the smoke gets worse, such as avoiding strenuous outdoor activities, not using their swamp coolers to cool their homes because it will suck the smoke indoors and stocking supplies of needed medications.
"Just because you can't see the fire doesn't mean there isn't an effect from the smoke blowing into the state," Minnick said.
Guarding the picturesque mountain town of Greer, where 22 homes and cabins were destroyed earlier in the week, firefighter Matt Howell, 28, described the difficulty of working in such smoky, choking conditions.
"You get in there and it's hard to breathe," he said. "You start coughing, can't get that good nice breath of air."
More than 30 homes have been destroyed since the fire began May 29, thousands of residents have fled communities and the blaze posed a potential danger to two major power lines that bring electricity from Arizona to West Texas, although officials said Saturday they had so far been able to protect the routes.
The fire began spotting across the state line Friday night and 150 additional firefighters and several fire engines were sent to bolster forces already waiting in New Mexico, officials said.
Lighter winds Thursday and Friday helped the 4,400 firefighters make progress, but critical fire conditions remain for the 4,400 firefighters working the blaze.
Containment regressed slightly to just 5 percent, on the northeastern edge.
In Greer, a smoky haze clung to fields, graying out the sky, and scattered plumes of smoke rose from the forest where spot fires persist.
Story: New evacuations as Ariz. fire tops 600 square miles
"We expect the winds to be testing a lot of our lines out there," fire spokeswoman Karen Takai said.
Concerns over air quality
Firefighter R.J. Carnright, 28, a local protecting his own town, reflected Saturday morning on the fight just days ago and looked ahead to what's to come.
"We put up a good fight and we're ready to do it again," he said, his face smeared with soot.
Nearly 10,000 people have been evacuated from the towns of Springerville and Eagar and from several other mountain communities in the forest, where officials said residents may be allowed back in soon, but also warned of lingering air pollution.
"Even when the word is given that you can come home, there's still going to be some air quality issues," said Eager Town Manager Bill Greenwood.
The fire is the second-largest in state history and could eclipse the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire in size, although only a fraction of the homes have burned. That blaze burned 732 square miles (1,895 sq. kilometers) and destroyed 491 buildings.
The current Wallow Fire in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest has destroyed 31 homes or cabins, fire spokesman Jim Whittington said. Two dozen outbuildings and a truck also were lost and five homes damaged in Greer when the fire moved in Wednesday night.
Firefighters are battling another major wildfire in far southeastern Arizona, also near the New Mexico line. The so-called Horseshoe Two blaze burned through 211 square miles or 135,000 acres of brush and timber since it started in early May. The fire has destroyed 23 structures but caused no serious injuries. It was 45 percent contained and fire officials hope to have it fully contained by late June.
Reflective Thinking
I love nature in everyway. I think natural disasters are amazing creatures even though sometimes they do cause lots of death. I believe that fires are a natural way that the earth cleanses itself. But the sad part is that because of the human race there are even more fires from accidents. They put alot of people in danger, but in my opinion mother nature has the right. Its like the earths way of fighting back against humans for all the damage that we have caused. Fire is a dangerous force that we really can't control. We give the illusion that its controled, but throughout the world it is always causing more and more deaths. The hot dry climate off Arizona is the best place for fires to start. One little fire can cause a mass wild fire that damages more than just nature. It damages homes and kills. It is dangerous and we need to stay aware and be catious when dealing with such a dangerous force.
Lechuguilla Cave
Lechuguilla Cave is, as of June 2011, the sixth longest cave in the world, at 130.24 miles that have been discovered, and the deepest in the continental United States, at 1,604 feet deep, but it is most famous for its unusual geology, rare formations, and pristine condition.
The reason it’s called Lechuguilla is for the Agave lechuguilla plant, found near its entrance. It is located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. Access to the cave is limited to approved scientific researchers, survey and exploration teams, and National Park Service management-related trips.
Lechuguilla Cave was known until 1986 as a small, fairly insignificant historic site in the park’s backcountry. Small amounts of bat guano were mined from the entrance passages for a year under a mining claim filed in 1914. The historic cave contained a 90-foot entrance pit known as Misery Hole, which led to 400 feet of dry dead-end passages.
The cave was visited infrequently after mining activities ceased. However, in the 1950s cavers heard wind roaring up from the rubble-chocked floor of the cave. Although there was no obvious route, different people concluded that cave passages lay below the rubble. A group of Colorado cavers gained permission from the National Park Service and began digging in 1984. The breakthrough, into large walking passages, occurred on May 26, 1986.
Since 1986, explorers have mapped over 130 miles of passages and have pushed the depth of the cave to 1,604 feet, ranking Lechuguilla as the 6th longest cave in the world, 4th longest in the United States and the deepest limestone cave in the country. Cavers, drawn by the caves pristine condition and rare beauty, come from around the world to explore and map its passages and geology.
Lechuguilla Cave offered even more than just its extreme size. Cavers were greeted by large amounts of gypsum and lemon-yellow sulfur deposits. A large variety of rare speleothems, some of which had never been seen anywhere in the world, included 20 feet gypsum chandeliers, 20 feet gypsum hairs and beards, 15 feet soda straws, hydromagnesite balloons, cave pearls, subaqueous helictites, rusticles, U-loops and J-loops. Lechuguilla Cave surpassed its nearby sister, Carlsbad Caverns, in size, depth, and variety of speleothems, though no room has been discovered yet in Lechuguilla Cave which is larger than Carlsbad’s Big Room.
Scientific exploration has been conducted as well. For the first time a Guadalupe Mountains cave extends deep enough that scientists may study five separate geologic formations from the inside. The profusion of gypsum and sulfur lends support to speleogenesis by sulfuric acid dissolution. The sulfuric acid is believed to be derived from hydrogen sulfide which migrated from nearby oil deposits. Thus, this cavern apparently formed from the bottom up, in contrast to the normal top-down carbonic acid dissolution mechanism of cave formation.
Rare, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria are believed to occur in the cave. These bacteria feed on the sulfur, iron, and manganese minerals and may assist in enlarging the cave and determining the shapes of some unusual speleothems. Other studies indicate that some microbes may have medicinal qualities that are beneficial to humans.
Lechuguilla Cave lies beneath a park wilderness area. However, it appears that the cave’s passages may extend out of the park into adjacent Bureau of Land Management land. A major threat to the cave is proposed gas and oil drilling on BLM land. Any leakage of gas or fluids into the cave’s passages could kill cave life or cause explosions.
Lechuguilla Cave was shown in the BBC documentary series Planet Earth. The fourth episode, titled Caves, aired on April 22, 2007 and documented a team of scientists and filmmakers exploring Lechuguilla Cave including the Chandelier Ballroom where high quality crystals are found. It took the team two years to get permission to film the cave and local authorities are unlikely to allow another film crew to enter in the future.
