![]() Mine engineers are constantly reminded of the need to provide multiple, independent escape routes for miners to prevent them from being trapped in cases such as this. As water enters, it flows to the lowest point, blocking the escape route. ![]() Coal mines are particularly vulnerable to inundation due to their relatively flat orientation. The flume exhibit at the Sanger Depot Museum shows a model of the flume and also a self explanatory pictorial display of the huge lumbering operation. Photo courtesy Tuolumne County Historical Society. The age of this tree is estimated at being 3,500 years old making it one of the oldest living things on earth. Typically, water rapidly enters a mine in one of these four scenarios, cutting off escape routes for miners. This massive redwood tree is an awesome 267 feet with a 33 foot diameter at the base. Mines can also become inundated by mining under an aquifer, such as a lake, when the ground above the mine is damaged by the mining activity.If this impoundment fails, slurry can also enter and quickly flood a mine. Another way a mine can incur inundation is when coal slurry, or left over mining waste, is not properly contained in an impoundment (a banked in area that holds the mineral/water mixture left over from mining). ![]() This can be avoided by drilling ahead with a small probe that could expose a possible flooded drift in an adjacent mine, so as to avoid exposing the flooded area to the newly mined area. Mining next to one of these sites can be dangerous if the new mine workings break into an older mine that is flooded. Older mines may be poorly mapped meaning the boundaries are not accurately known. Safety experts say this is an infrequent, but a very preventable type of inundation. Mining into an adjacent, abandoned mine that is flooded is another way to cause an inundation.Water settles into the low areas of a mine tunnel or drift. This rapid inflow of water can trap miners by blocking escape routes. Flash floods (as in the case of Monday's incident) where heavy rainfall or swollen creeks and rivers dump large amounts of water into a mine entrance.In fact, there are four ways excessive water can enter a mine and cause problems: Inundation, or water suddenly entering a mine, is not that uncommon. While the amount of rain that fell is unusual, water inundating a mine unfortunately is not. An unusually large amount of rain that fell Monday, June 20, near a coal mine in Kentucky flooded portions of the mine, trapping three miners.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |