Identification of Small Old Shafts Locations and a Proposal for Their Protection

The issues related to threats to human safety in post-mining areas are important. This article delineates such threats, focusing mainly on the problem of sinkholes emerging above small old shafts. Small shafts are understood as excavations, most often with a rectangular cross section and a side of 1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pure and applied geophysics 2022-08, Vol.179 (8), p.2889-2904
Main Author: Strzałkowski, Piotr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Backfill
Documentation
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Excavation
Geology
Geophysical studies
Geophysics/Geodesy
Lidar
Locating
Mathematical models
Methods
Mining accidents & safety
Numerical methods
Precipitation
Shafts (excavations)
Sinkholes
Thermal imaging
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Summary:The issues related to threats to human safety in post-mining areas are important. This article delineates such threats, focusing mainly on the problem of sinkholes emerging above small old shafts. Small shafts are understood as excavations, most often with a rectangular cross section and a side of 1–3 m and a depth ranging from several meters to several dozen meters. The difficulties with locating small shafts have often been associated with the lack of complete geological and mining documentation. Having gained access to the geological and mining documentation concerning mining activities conducted in the nineteenth century, field research was carried out. LIDAR technology has been proposed as a means of initial evaluation of an area together with a thermal imaging camera to assess if the sinkholes had been formed due to past mining activities. Preliminary results of the study suggest that infrared mapping could be used as a method that could to some extent limit the time-consuming and laborious geophysical studies. The work uses Bell’s formula and a numerical method to assess the degree of threat of sinkhole formation on the surface area. According to the results of the studies described in the literature as well as the author’s professional experience, the most common cause of the surface hazards in post-mining regions is the lowering of the backfilling material in shafts. Precipitation has a significant impact on such behaviour of backfill. Therefore, this paper proposes methods of isolating shaft’s backfilling column from precipitation water.
ISSN:0033-4553
1420-9136
DOI:10.1007/s00024-022-03093-x