Tracking Deformation Processes at the Legnica Glogow Copper District (Poland) by Satellite InSAR—II: Żelazny Most Tailings Dam

Abstract

The failures of tailings dams have a major negative impact on the economy, surrounding properties, and people’s lives, and therefore the monitoring of these facilities is crucial to mitigate the risk of failure, but this can be challenging due to their size and inaccessibility. In this work, the deformation processes at Żelazny Most tailings dam (Poland) were analyzed using satellite Ad-vanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) from October 2014 to April 2019, showing that the dam is affected by both settlements (with a maximum rate of 30 mm/yr), and horizontal sliding in radial direction with respect to the ponds. The load of the tailings is pushing the dam forward along the glacio-tectonic shear planes located at depth, in the Pliocene clays, causing horizontal displacements at a rate up to 30 mm/yr, which could lead to a passive failure of the dam. The measured displacements have been compared with the ones observed by in situ data from the 90s to 2013, available in the literature. The outcomes indicate that intense localized deformations occur in the eastern and northern sectors of the dam, while the western sector is deforming evenly. Moreover, although the horizontal deformation had a slowdown from 2010 until 2013, it continued in 2014 to 2019 with recovered intensity. The upper and the recent embankments are affected by major settlements, possibly due to a lower consolidation degree of the most recent tailings and a larger thickness of compressible materials.

The Role of Satellite InSAR for Landslide Forecasting: Limitations and Openings

“…In this scenario, the SBAS approaches could provide interesting and additional information in highly deformable soils and rocks sometimes characterized by few (or by the absence) of the so-called persistent scatterers, even if SBAS is not as accurate as PSI because of the unwrapping errors [29]. In addition, in some cases, the intensity of the ground displacements can be quantitatively estimated by the analysis of multi-temporal unwrapped interferograms with centimetric accuracy, as highlighted in several studies [78]. The method is less accurate and robust with respect to common A-DInSAR methods (due to atmospheric noise, residual height contribution and unwrapping errors), but it allows to estimate displacements larger than those producing phase aliasing with multi-temporal processing algos and to obtain more distributed data.…”

Tailings Behavior Assessment Using Piezocone Penetration Test

“…The elements of geotechnical monitoring mainly consist of specialized in situ tests, deep drilling, a geodetic network, GPS stations, an inclinometer network, a seismometric network, a piezometer network, and others [13][14][15][16][17]. An extensive monitoring database allows for the assessment of the actual response of the storage facility to the substrate.…”

Dam Surface Deformation Monitoring and Analysis Based on PS-InSAR Technology: A Case Study of Xiaolangdi Reservoir Dam in China

“…It also has the unique advantages of all-weather and all-time monitoring [18]. At present, some scholars have taken the lead in using InSAR technology to monitor reservoir dam deformation [3,[19][20][21][22][23]. For example, Antonio M.Ruiz-Armenteros used MT-InSAR technology based on ERS-1/2, Envisat, and Sentinel-1 data to monitor the deformation of La Viñuela (Málaga, southern Spain) dam facilities.…”