Environment

Plume from Mumbai's Burning Landfill Seen from Space

The end of January had a smoky surprise for Mumbai, India, after the city's largest landfill caught fire and burned for four days. The billowing smoke was so thick that the massive plume could be seen from space . Mumbai's Deonar dumping ground extends across 0.5 square miles (1.3 square kilometers) near Thane Creek. Each day, the landfill receives more than 8.1 million pounds (3.7 million kilograms) of trash. All that garbage gets tossed into towering piles that measure up to 100 feet (30 meters) in places, which is equivalent to the height of a nine-story building.

Large-scale fires are never good, but when trash burns, it can be even more problematic. For one, landfill fires are difficult to extinguish because they are fueled by highly flammable substances, such as methane, which is produced by decomposing organic materials. And the Mumbai fire was sizeable enough to be spotted by the Earth-watching Landsat 8 satellite.

Equally problematic are the large quantities of smoke produced by the landfill fire, which is located near a densely populated area. The burning trash potentially contains dangerous chemical compounds that can cause respiratory disorders or other medical conditions.

On Jan. 29, pollution in Mumbai was measured at its highest levels since air quality data monitoring began last June. The smoky air also forced government schools in central Mumbai's suburbs of Shivaji Nagar and Deonar to close.