Rock burst recordings have been processed with a method developed for studies of the development of a rupcure in the source of a weak earchquake.The fracturing directions thac were determ/ned matched the accepted regional geologic and tectonic interpretations.The source area size and the rupture spread velocities were determined on the basis of azimuthal traveltime curves of Pmax waves. The data were compared with the volumes of ruptures in mines caused by rock bursts.A possible definition of an earthquake source as a. seismic energy emitter including a ruptured area has been suggested.In underground mining, such as in North Ural Bauxite mines, technical factors change the stressed state of rocks in situ quite rapidly. One can observe here, as in a natural laboratory, the processes of stress accumulation and relaxation, evaluate the time intervals between relaxation events (rock bursts), and try to forecast them. Our first objective was to apply a method of seismogram analysis developed for an elongate source of seismic wave emission [i, 2] in a study of the directions of propagation of faults caused by rock bursts, with a view of using it in the future as a tool for identifying burst-hazardous zones.The method allows the investigator not only to determine the direction of a fault propagation, but also to estimate the length of the source region and the duration of source actlvity; we measured chase two quantities as well. In the discussion of our results, mainly the sizes of the sources, we also made use of the findings of surveys of destructive rock bursts.
METHODConventional seismologlc studies interpret the focus of a weak earthquake as a point source.Catalogs specify a slngle dynamic source parameter: its energy class. However, theoretical and model studies of sources make it possible now co analyze a seismic emission as a dy-am~c event on the basis of instrumental recordings. The method suggested in this paper is based on the following results.In a theoretlcal study, Kostrov [3] has modeled an earthquake focus by a shear crack. If the micrononu~formlties of the environment are considered, the propagation of a rupture and the slippage of its sides appear as a discrete jumplike process. Close to the beginning of the rupture process, there should be relatively few pulses representing the discrete fracturing events. As the rupture propagates, the number of pulses grows and they become longer because of the growth of the fault area and the length of ice edge; the pulses begin co interfere with each other. This is seen as an increase in the apparent period on the seismogram. Pulses emitted by discrete rupture events associated with Jumplike changes of the slippage velocity can be expected to be of the largest amplitude near the rupture edge [3].Experiments with specimen fracturing also indicate that fracturing is a discrete process which begins with weak displacements, recorded as small-amplltude vibrations in seismograms. The main shear occurs not 4~,~diately but after a C~mm interval r; at chat instant, the b...