Spring Hill Mine Disaster: Lack of Safety Tech Contributed
“The Spring Hill bump happened because the mines were super deep and the pressure in the Rock got too strong. in 1958 mines didn't have safety Tech or rules that we have now and if they did the disaster might not have been as bad or might not have happened at all. some big things that kind of helped could have been: stronger tunnel supports better ways to measure rock pressure better ventilation more Escape Routes or an Escape Plan and better communication plans or systems and more training”
Summary
The 1958 Springhill bump was indeed caused by the extreme depth of the mine and the resulting high rock stress, which triggered a violent rockburst. At the time, safety technologies, monitoring methods, and regulations were far less advanced, and modern practices such as stronger supports, improved stress measurement, better ventilation, additional escape routes, and enhanced communication and training would likely have lessened the severity or possibly prevented the disaster.
Sources 52 searched
- Rock mechanics analysis of the Springhill mine disaster (October 23, 1958) - ScienceDirect
Therefore, the appropriate method to control rockburst is stress release, which can be achieved by advanced pilot tunnel excavation, hydraulic fracturing, and presplitting blasting, rather than high-pressure water spraying in the surrounding rock. ... Rock burst refers to the bursting and ejection of surrounding rocks, due to the sudden release of elastic deformation energy accumulated in surrounding rocks during tunnel excavation. Rock burst is a dangerous phenomenon, which generally occurs in deeply buried underground projects within the hard rock (Notley 1984; Bolstad, 1990; Kaiser et al., 1996; Feng et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2012; Feng et al., 2017).
- Regional Bumps: Case studies from the 1958 Bump Symposium
Bieniawski, Z.T. (1989) Engineering Rock ... Petroleum Engineering. John Wiley & Sons, ... Campbell, W.F. (1958). Deep coal mining in · Springhill No. 2 Mine. Mining Engineering, Sept. 1958, pp 987-992. Clark, F. R., (1928). Castlegate, Wellington, ... Utah. US Geol. Survey Bull. 793 . Herd, W. (1930) Bumps in No.
- Up from the mine, 52 years ago - CNN.com
Fallen rock blocked access to the depths; the mine had sealed up as if it had never existed. The world was watching: The Springhill Mine Disaster was the world's first live-television-broadcast news event.
- Rock mechanics analysis of the Springhill mine disaster (October 23, 1958) - ADS
Factors contributing to bumping are discussed and a theory of bump mechanism is developed in the light of descriptions of earlier bumps at Springhill and literature from other bump and rock burst prone areas of the world. Bumping in coal mines appears to be inevitable under certain conditions of depth and geology.
- Causes and Control of Coal Mine Bumps
The world’s largest collection of open access research papers
- Springhill mining disasters - Wikipedia
Springhill's No. 2 colliery was one of the deepest coal mines in the world. Sloping shafts 14,200 feet (4,300 m) in length led to a vast labyrinth of galleries more than 4,000 feet (1,200 m) below the surface. Mining techniques there had been changed 20 years before the 1958 bump, from "room and pillar" to "long wall retreating" after reports had shown the increased danger of "bump" phenomena resulting from the former technique.
- Springhill Coal Mining National Historic Site - Wikipedia
Mining operations depended heavily ... multiple disasters. In 1891 and 1956, coal dust explosions rocked the mine and resulted in many fatalities; in 1958 an underground earthquake, or "bump", caused sections of the mine to collapse. The site's historical value is due to Springhill's high importance ...
- Springhill, 1958 | Byron Christopher
In 1956, a mine explosion killed 39 men ... and in 1958, 75 more perished when the floor of the mine shaft, deep underground, suddenly shot upwards, crushing scores of men. I was 8…
- The Night Springhill Stood Still: The 1958 Mining Disaster That United a Nation
On that October night, 174 men had clocked in. They were scattered along sloping shafts that reached more than 4,000 feet below the surface. The further they went down, the more pressure the rock layers put on the tunnels.
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