Description of a Large Catastrophic Failure in a Southwestern Wyoming Trona Mine

Details

• Personal Author:
  Swanson P ; Zipf, R. Karl, Jr.
• Description:
  A large-scale collapse occurred in a room-and-pillar trona mine in southwestern Wyoming on February 3, 1995. An area measuring approximately 1 by 2 km (2800 by 7200 ft) collapsed abruptly without warning. This paper describes the resulting mine damage, airblast, gas emissions, and seismic event. The collapse is analyzed in terms of a cascading sequence of pillar-floor failure using established principles of failure stability. The dynamic nature of the failure is thought to stem from geological and mine geometry factors resulting in a "soft" pillar-loading system. While the specific mechanism initiating the collapse has not been identified conclusively, four candidate mechanisms are considered. Design methods to decrease the potential for large-scale collapse are summarized, and limitations in our ability to evaluate both the stability of old workings and long-term performance of new designs in this setting are described. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Ergonomics Mining Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Software Waste Management
• Keywords:
  Accident-potential Accident-prevention Analytical-methods Analytical-models Analytical-processes Computer-models Ground-control Ground-stability Injury-prevention Mine-shafts Mining-industry Models Pillar Mechanics Rock-bursts Safety-measures Safety-research Structural-analysis Waste-disposal-systems

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISBN:
  9789058090522
• Publisher:
  A. A. Balkema Publishers
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Missouri ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 7 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  SRL - Spokane Research Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  293-298
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20054173
• Citation:
  Rock Mechanics for Industry - Proceedings of the 37th U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium, Vail, Colorado, June 6-9, 1999. Rotterdam, Netherlands: A. A. Balkema Publishers, 1999 Jun; :293-298
• Editor(s):
  Amadei B; Kranz RL; Scott GA; Smeallie PH
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1999
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Rock Mechanics for Industry - Proceedings of the 37th U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium, Vail, Colorado, June 6-9, 1999
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:40dd8a7f0a10f3c86f45ae74277c2658250536acd5027797419d5eb067bfa5d217c13044b97734fb314b72d2e40118a5bdf7b27b45e6d2cddf0380e2572c0ae7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227788/cdc_227788_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 695.74 KB ]