On 19 March 2013, a tremor shook the surface of Polkowice town where the Rudna Mine is located. This event, of ML = 4.2, was the third most powerful seismic event recorded in the Legnica Gáogów Copper District (LGCD). Inhabitants of the area reported that the felt tremor was bigger and lasted longer than any other ones felt in the last couple of years. Analysis of spectral parameters of the records from in-mine seismic system and surface LUMINEOS network along with broadband station KSP record were carried out. The location of the event was close to the Rudna Gáówna Fault zone; the nodal planes orientations determined with two different approaches were almost parallel to the strike of the fault. The mechanism solutions were also obtained as Full Moment Tensor from P-wave amplitude pulses of underground records and waveform inversion of surface network seismograms. The results from the seismic analysis along with macroseismic survey and observed effects from the destroyed part of the mining panel indicate that the mechanism of the event was complex rupture initiated as thrust faulting on an inactive tectonic normal fault zone. The results confirm that the fault zones are the areas of higher risk, even in case of carefully taken mining operations.
On 19 March 2013, a strong, shallow, induced seismic event struck a mining panel in the room-and-pillar Rudna copper mine in southeastern Poland. The event caused important damage at the mining tunnel and trapped 19 miners, who were safely rescued a few hours later. Although mining-induced seismicity is frequent at this mine, the 19 March event was unusual because of its larger magnitude, its occurrence far from the mining stopes, and because it was accompanied by a strong hazardous rockburst. The mining inspections following the event verified the occurrence of a rockfall with tunnel floor uplift but also recognized the presence of a faulting structure at the hypocentral location. The availability of three monitoring networks (including local and regional data, short-period and broadband seismometers, and surface and in-mine installation) presented an optimal setup to determine rupture parameters and to compare the performance and results from different installations. We performed waveform and spectral-based analysis to infer source properties, with a particular interest to the determination of the rupture processes, using different moment tensor (MT) inversion techniques. Our results are surprisingly different, ranging from a dominant thrust mechanism, resolved at closest distances, to a collapse-type rupture, resolved at regional distances. We demonstrate that a complex rupture model is needed to explain all observations and to justify these discrepancies. The final scenario indicates that the rupture nucleated as a weaker thrust mechanism along a pre-existing weakened surface and then continued in a more energetic collapse event. The local LUMINEOS surface network has the potential to resolve both subevents but not using a standard MT decomposition. Here, we propose a new MT decomposition and an alternative MT fitting procedure that can be used to analyze the MT of collapse sources.Online Material: Tables of regional stations and source parameters, and figure of displacement seismograms.
Abstract-Tectonic seismicity in Poland is sparse. The biggest event was located near Myślenice in 17th century of magnitude 5.6. On the other hand, the anthropogenic seismicity is one of the highest in Europe related, for example, to underground mining in Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) and Legnica Głogów Copper District (LGCD), open pit mining in ''Bełchatów'' brown coal mine and reservoir impoundment of Czorsztyn artificial lake. The level of seismic activity in these areas varies from tens to thousands of events per year. Focal mechanism and full moment tensor (MT) decomposition allow for deeper understanding of the seismogenic process leading to tectonic, induced, and triggered seismic events. The non-DC components of moment tensors are considered as an indicator of the induced seismicity. In this work, the MT inversion and decomposition is proved to be a robust tool for unveiling collapse-type events as well as the other induced events in Polish underground mining areas. The robustness and limitations of the presented method is exemplified by synthetic tests and by analyzing weak tectonic earthquakes. The spurious non-DC components of full MT solutions due to the noise and poor focal coverage are discussed. The results of the MT inversions of the human-related and tectonic earthquakes from Poland indicate this method as a useful part of the tectonic and anthropogenic seismicity discrimination workflow.
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