Elements of Seismic Hazard in Mines

Abstract

The main and first objective of this well-illustrated open access book is to introduce, define and explain common terms and concepts in earthquake and mine seismology. In seismology diverse fields, ranging from mathematics, classical mechanics, geology, rock and fracture mechanics to statistical physics with their specific jargon and terminology are brought together. Therefore, the language of earthquake and mine seismologists includes terms which may not be familiar to many geotechnical and mining engineers. For example, the proliferation of different earthquake magnitude scales has caused confusion about even this presumably simple concept and statistical physics brought in a plethora of new terms into the seismological parlance. The second aim of this volume is to clarify some of the misconceptions, in particular related to the analysis and interpretation of mining related seismicity and to seismic hazard assessment for mines. As third aim the book stresses the need for testing the quality and integrity of the data before any analysis and assessment is attempted, the importance of quantifying observations and estimating the associated uncertainties. This book is primarily intended for mine seismologists and for mine geotechnical engineers who are, or plan to become, involved in advising mining companies on how to manage the seismic rock mass response to mining. The book will also be of interested to mining and geotechnical engineering students.