Investigations of outbursts and tremors in Polish collieries with application of radon measurements

Outbursts of gas and rocks are one of the serious hazards, occurring in the underground mining. There were numerous examples of the large catastrophes in mines, caused by this phenomenon, with a lot of casualties among miners. According to Hargraves [2], the outburst is a sudden release of gas and coal from the freshly exposed coal face during exploitation of the seams or during driving accessing galleries in coal. Sizes of released coal particles are usually small, typically fine coal dust. The main reason of such events is the presence of very large amounts of gas (CO2 or CH4) absorbed in the coal. The release of the gas together with coal (the outburst) is caused by the perturbation of the dynamic equilibrium in the strata. It may be caused by the exploitation or other mining activities in seams, prone to outbursts, The release of gas under very high pressure is so sudden, that it may cause damage to the mining equipment and elements of support. If the methane is present in the mixture of released gases, an additional problem might be its inflammation or an explosion. Miners, working in the vicinity of the spot, are endangered – severe injuries or even fatalities might happen, due to suffocation, burns, etc. The biggest incident of outburst in Poland happened in 1958 in Nowa Ruda Colliery in LSCB. During the Investigations of outbursts and tremors in Polish collieries with application of radon measurements Małgorzata Wysocka