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Acid mine drainage (AMD) and subsidence are two of the serious environmental and engineering problems associated with active, abandoned, and recently active mine lands. Geophysical methods are available to simply and inexpensively determine the location and extent of the problem area, to monitor the progress of remediation work, and to assess the long-term impact of mining-related environmental and engineering problems. Various techniques can be used to locate hydrologic flows through buried spoil, to study combustion areas in coal waste bank fires, and to detect the subsurface conditions that lead to the occurrence of mine subsidence. The utility of two of these geophysical tools has been demonstrated in specific case studies: the use of terrain conductivity to facilitate stream sealing and the application of seismic techniques to characterize longwall mine overburden conditions. Other geophysical methods are discussed in terms of their potential application to mining-related problems.

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