CHAPTER

Rockbursts and similar phenomena

Rockbursts are violent failures in the ground, breaking rock and expelling it
into excavations. Other definitions describe the phenomenon as a special seismic event or as some rheological process, thus aiming at a more general classification. The term is, however, descriptive and rather self-explanatory: broken
rock - in coal mines, broken coal - bursts into mine workings from the sides,
roof, or floor, this happening suddenly and in an explosive manner. Other
terms are 'bump', 'mountain bump', 'air blast', or simply 'burst'. Rockbursts
are mainly encountered in ore, coal, and potash mines, also in tunnels or caverns in hard competent rock like granite or quartzite. The quantity of broken
rock ranges from a few tons to thousands of tons.
Every rockburst is accompanied by a loud report and a ground tremor - a
seismic shock - the strength of which varies with the strength of the burst. Tremors from major rockbursts are felt on the surface, but even vibrations from
slight rockbursts can be recorded by seismic stations. The strongest ffemof yet
recorded, having a seismic magnitude of 5.6 (Richter scale), resulted from a
large rockburst in a potash mine.
On the other hand, the great majority of ground tremors induced by mining
are not due to rockbursts. They appear to result from fracture processes in the
course of subsidence of undermined hard strata. For example, in the Ruhr Distict 4623 seismic events were localizedby earthquake stations from 1983 to
1,992; the greatest number of them were not even noticed underground, and
only 18 rockbursts occurred during this ten-year period. In brief, a rockburst
always causes a ground tremor, but most tremors are not caused by rockbursts.
Another symptom of rockbursts is a gust of air, in some cases so strong that
the term 'air blast' is used synonymously for rockburst. Such blasts can whirl
up large quantities of dust and may impair the ventilation; in some instances
they feel like air discharged from a compressed-air line.
The rockbursts in coal mines are violent failures of the coal seam, causing
ejection of broken coal and often taking the form of an abrupt movement of the
face or sidewall. They may therefore more appropriately be designated as 'coal
bursts'. Sometimes they are accompanied by immediate floor heave or, less
frequently, by sudden roof fall. The hazard of explosion may arise from the es-

2 Ro ckbur st s and s imilar p he nome nn

cape of flammable gas and the lifting of coal dust. Large rockbursts have released up to 10s m3 of methane.
The gas release can give rise to mistaking such rockbursts for outbursts of
gas and coal. There is indeed some resemblance. These so-called gas-coal'outbursts are sudden emissions of gas - mostly methane or carbon dioxide which involve the ejection of disintegrated coal and leave longish cavities in
the seam. The most characteristic features which distinguish them from rockbursts are as follows:
- The process is slower and less violent.
- There is no or relatively little seismic reaction.

The ejected coal is broken into even smaller particles.

- Occurrence is predominantly associated with geological disturbances.
The coal usually comes out of an advancing face or its close vicinity whereas
rockbursts may also come out of sidewalls or pillars. A necessary (not a sufficient) precondition is, of course, that the seam contains enough gas - e.g. at
least 10 m3 of methane per ton of solid coal. This has no bearing on rockburst
occunence in most coalfields.
Another similarly sudden phenomenon is gas-rock-outburst, which ejects
crushed rock instead of coal. In coal mines, the outbursts mostly come out of
gas-bearing sandstone strata and leave typical cavities with marked patterns of
fracturing nof related to the structure of the sandstone in the sides. Such cavities and the masses of crushed stone are unmistakable and help to identify

the event.
Fig. 1.1 shows a roadway after a major rockburst. The roadway was located
in a flat seam 3 m thick and is now being restored to its former cross-section,
namely 6 m wide and 3 m high. The seam burst in simultaneously from both
sides, thus nearly closing the roadway. About 15 m farther ahead, in Fig. 1.2,
the roadway is still narrowed to a hardly passable hole. The seam looks as if it
had expanded as an intact mass from both sides. This appearance is not uncommon when the deformed steel arches or props still prevent the coal fragments
from falling; otherwise the coal would be more disintegrated and scattered. No

fracture in either roof or floor was involved. The destructive effects of this
burst extended over a length of 50 m in the roadway; aboat 42 000 m3 of
methane was released.

A similar but more disastrous

example of a rockburst is illustrated in Fig.

1.3. In this heading, the coal from both sides met in the middle, leaving no void
and even pressing the compressed air pipe flat (arrow). The heading was 1.6 m

high (the seam thickness) and originally 2.5 m wide; it was closed totally over
a distance of 160 m (see also p. 10 f.). The photo clearly shows that the roof
and the floor remained stable.
The majority of rockbursts are less severe yet still involve ahazard to personnel. Fig. 1.4 shows, in plan view, a very slight rockburst which came out of
a prop-free longwall face in a seam 2 m thick. In the burst zone, for a distance

Rockbursts and similar phenomena 3

Fig. 1.1. Roadway nearly closed by

Fig. 1.2. Roadway in Fig. 1.1, about

rockburst.

15

m farther.

4 Rockbursts and similar

henomcna

Fig. 1.3. Rise heading closed by

rockburst.

Top rood

Fig. 1.4. Slight rockburst out of

longwall face (plan view)'

of 8 m, the face collapsed into a slope of fragments (the darkened area in Fig.
1.4) and shifted the conveyor towards the goaf (goaf - extracted area, minedout area). The upper third of the seam was nearly pulverized, the rest was
broken to a greater or lesser degree.

Rockbursts and similar pherutmena 5

Fig: 1.5. Gas-coal-outburst in a rise heading.

When a similar disintegration of coal is associated with considerable emission of gas, the event might be taken for a gas-coal-outburst. The coal from
such outbursts, as shown in Fig. 1.5, resembles to some extent the coal from
rockbursts coming out of unsupported faces or sidewalls. The outburst in
Fig. 1.5 came out of the advancing face of a rise heading and discharged about
60 tons of coal and 300 m3 of methane. The movement of the coal did, however, not happen suddenly but instead lasted several minutes, and no ground
shock was felt. From these symptoms the process can be clearly identified as a
gas-coal-outburst.
There are also unstable failure processes slower than rockbursts or gas outbursts but faster than normal convergence. They begin in a series of slight but
sudden and audible fractures and movements of the coal and the adjacent rock
and may lead to considerable closure of the excavation in a few hours. In the
example shown in Fig. 1.6 the floor of the roadway heaved 0.8 m within 24
hours while the seam moved 0.5 m inward from both sides. The roadway was
6 m wide and the seam 1.9 m thick. The photo was taken 17 days later when
the floor had heaved an additional I m so that the roadway was almost
completely closed off. Although such processes usually come to an end within
some days, they should lead to closer investigations into ground stresses and
geological conditions. The evident tendency to unstable reactions may involve
rockburst danger in case of more resistant over- and underlying strata.

6 Rocl<bursts and similar

phenomena

CHAP

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Fig. 1.6. Rapid convergence of a roadway'

Theappearanceofrockburstsdependslargelyonlocalconditions'Sudden
underlying coal beds' Soft
floor heave is ,etatiuiiy ori"n i"uorued if the;e are
liable to break down' In steep
layers between the seam and the main roof are
Seams'thecoalfattsinloosemassesleavingirregularlyshapedcavities.Evenof

ihere is still the influence

though the geological conditions may be a]ike,
roadways are more susfacto'rs: pillars may burst on two or more sides,
are
side than from the face, and longwall faces
..priuft to burs?s
"itt ".
supports are-used' Finally, it deless damaged by minor bursts when powered
bursts can occur
p.nc, on leotolical and on mining conditions as to whether
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