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| Surface seismometer installation |
Background
Rock bursts, coal bumps, and other large-scale dynamic failures represent serious ground control problems facing miners in certain industry sectors. These low-probability/high-consequence events often result in severe injuries or death and have the potential to affect an entire underground workforce. When mining near bodies of water, dynamic strata failure also poses potential hazards as a result of changes in rock mass permeability and shaking-induced damage to impoundment structures. An inability to address these problems effectively can result in resource abandonment and/or mine closure and a significant economic impact on entire communities.
Potential Outcome
Research personnel are engaged in joint demonstration and research projects with the mining industry using seismic monitoring tools to advance worker safety through several different avenues. Expected results include:
- Providing quantitative understanding of dynamic failure processes for developing effective hazard mitigation techniques.
- Providing data that can be used to develop empirical ground motion relations for establishing guidelines for safe mining near bodies of water.
- Facilitating adoption of technology and/or guidelines by industry to avoid or mitigate hazards.
By 2010, the results of this research will provide mine operators with the techniques needed to mine safely around bodies of water.