Two recent events have focused attention on the need for mapping underground mine workings: the failure of the Martin County Coal Corporation tailings impoundment near Inez, Kentucky on 11 October 2000 and the 24 July 2002 Quecreek Mine inundation that trapped nine miners for 77 hours in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In both cases, unexpected conditions related to abandoned mines were the sources of the accidents. In the first case, the overburden between an abandoned mine and the base of a slurry impoundment was too thin and the slurry broke into the mine. The consequence was that the slurry broke out...
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