Malovichko, D & Rigby, A 2024, 'Stress inversion from slip-type and crush-type seismic events in mines', in P Andrieux & D Cumming-Potvin (eds), Deep Mining 2024: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Deep and High Stress Mining, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 931-946, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_repo/2465_59
(https://papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/2465_59_Rigby/)
Abstract: In the context of crustal seismology, a number of methods have been proposed for inferring stress state information from seismic data (moment tensors). These methods rely on assumptions that are often violated by mining-induced seismicity. For example, they require that sources are purely slip-type, whereas crush-type sources (failure near/around excavations and convergence of the surrounding rock mass) are frequently observed in mines. The conventional methods also cannot be applied to source mechanisms controlled by a small number of predominant faults. This paper presents a new stress inversion method (called stress inversion from mine seismicity – SIMS) that makes it possible to involve more data compared to the conventional methods; specifically crush-type seismic events associated with tunnels and slip-type events attributed to known geological structures. The performance of method is demonstrated using a synthetic case study and also data from a real mine.

Keywords: direction of principal stresses, ratio of stress magnitudes, seismic source mechanism, dynamic stress fracturing around tunnels