Strata failure and mining under surface and ground water

Abstract

Many coal mines are threatened by bodies of water during coal extractions. These bodies of water include rivers, lakes, reservoirs and groundwater. For example, there are about 125 rivers flowing through China's coal fields, and more than 200 coal mines are confronted with the problems of mining under rivers. For groundwater, there are three main possible water disasters affected safety operations of coal mines (Zhang et al. 1997, Peng and Meng 2002): (1) water inrushes from Ordovician limestone underlying the Permo-Carboniferous coal seams in Northern China; (2) water inrushes from low Permian limestone underlying coal seams and from Triassic limestone overlying coal seams of late Permian in Southern China; and (3) water inrushes from Cenozoic porous aquifers in the Yellow River and Huai River alluvial plain areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]