A small flame burns behind a New York waterfall, and the gas that feeds it should not exist

Tucked behind a cascade in a quiet forest near Buffalo is one of nature's neatest tricks. At the Eternal Flame Falls a real flame dances in a rocky pocket while water tumbles past it, and the geology behind it has scientists scratching their heads.

A small flame flickers in a grotto right beside the falling water. Illustration: Watts & Wild.

Fire and water are supposed to be enemies, the one thing that reliably puts the other out.

At one little waterfall in New York State, they have somehow agreed to share the same few centimetres of rock.

What is the Eternal Flame Falls? The Eternal Flame Falls is a small waterfall in a forest near Buffalo, New York, where a flame burns inside a rocky hollow at the base of the cascade. The flame is fed by natural gas seeping out of the rock, and it sits in a sheltered pocket so the water does not put it out.

Fire inside a waterfall

The Eternal Flame Falls sits in the Shale Creek Preserve, part of Chestnut Ridge Park just south of Buffalo.

The waterfall itself is modest, a thin curtain of water dropping around nine metres into a shaded gorge.

What draws people is the small flame, often only ten or twenty centimetres high, glowing in a little grotto right at the foot of the falls.

It is one of the most easily reached of the world's so-called eternal flames, just a short hike from a car park.

Standing there, you can watch flame and water almost touching, neither quite winning.

How a flame lives under falling water

The secret is the natural gas leaking steadily out of the rock face.

The gas gathers in a small alcove that the falling water happens to arch over rather than fill, leaving a dry pocket of fuel.

Once someone holds a lighter to it, the seeping gas catches and burns with a soft, steady flame.

Because the flame sits just back from the cascade, the spray usually misses it, and it can keep burning even in the damp.

It is less a miracle than a lucky bit of plumbing, gas, shelter and a spark all lined up in one spot.

The gas that breaks the rules

Here is where the curiosity turns genuinely scientific.

Most natural gas forms when buried shale is cooked deep underground at high temperatures, slowly breaking down into methane over ages.

But the shale feeding this flame lies fairly shallow and is surprisingly cool, no hotter than a fresh cup of tea, far below the heat the textbooks say is needed.

A study in 2013 found that the gas here does not fit the usual recipe, hinting that something less understood is generating it.

A tiny tourist flame, it turns out, sits on top of a real puzzle about how the Earth makes gas at all.

Not quite eternal

For all its romantic name, the flame is far from everlasting.

Wind, dripping water and spray snuff it out fairly often, sometimes several times a day.

When that happens, the next hiker to arrive simply flicks a lighter and brings it back to life.

So the eternal flame is really a relay, kept alive by a steady stream of curious visitors.

That makes it feel less like a monument and more like a little shared campfire that the forest keeps trying to blow out.

The honest catch

It is worth keeping the wonder in proportion.

The flame is small, it goes out regularly, and the claim that it leaves scientists totally baffled is a bit overcooked.

What is genuinely true is that the gas seeps from rock cooler than the standard model expects, which is a real and interesting wrinkle.

It is also a reminder that flammable gas leaking from the ground is natural here, not a sign of anything broken.

Stripped of the hype, you are left with something better, a real flame burning behind a waterfall over a small scientific mystery.

The Eternal Flame Falls is a reminder that the planet quietly leaks its secrets, and sometimes they catch fire.

It belongs with the other places where the Earth burns and glows of its own accord, from the desert crater that has burned for decades to the volcano that flickers with electric-blue flames.

If a forest can quietly leak enough gas to keep a flame alive behind a waterfall, what other small wonders are hiding in the woods near you, and would you hike out to relight this one? Tell us in the comments.