A New Concept of the Mechanism of Rock-Tectonic Bursts and Other Dynamic Phenomena in Conditions of Ore Deposits

Abstract

In mining technical literature, the prevailing idea is still that rockbursts in open pits and underground mines are caused by gravitational forces produced by the overburden rock mass, put forward in the 20th century by S.G. Avershin and I.M. Petukhov. This concept is the basis for the rules of safe mining at rockburst-hazardous deposits, including modern guidance documents of Rostekhnadzor. Numerous studies of the behavior of a rock mass as a geological medium, the phenomena causing rockbursts in underground workings, the mechanisms of manifestation of rockbursts and rock-tectonic bursts change many ideas. They have now become urgently needed to explain the causes of particularly powerful geodynamic phenomena in mines - rock-tectonic bursts, technogenic earthquakes - phenomena that were practically not observed in the 20th century. Intense geodynamic events in mines (rock-tectonic bursts, technogenic earthquakes), comparable in energy level to natural earthquakes, have once again shown their analogy with natural earthquakes to be studied by seismology. M.A. Sadovsky et al. established the law of self-similarity of seismic process at different scale levels. Based on this law, the relationships established for seismic focuses proved to be applicable to dynamic manifestations of rock pressure at mines. In this paper, further details of this analogy are developed. It shows which forms of dynamic manifestations of rock pressure correspond to which sizes of structural heterogeneity of rock mass. Based on the law of self-similarity of seismic processes at different scale levels, we showed that the energy characteristics of the rock pressure manifestations at mines obey the laws established in seismology.