Establishment of SATREPS experimental sites in South African gold mines to monitor phenomena associated with earthquake nucleation and rupture

Authors: Durrheim, RJ; Ogasawara, H; Nakatani, M; Yabe, Y; Kawakata, H; Naoi, M; Ward, AK; Murphy, SK; Wienand, J; Lenegan, P; Milev, AM; Murakami, O; Yoshimitsu, N; Kgarume, T; Cichowicz, A

DOI https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1201_12_durrheim

Cite As:
Durrheim, RJ, Ogasawara, H, Nakatani, M, Yabe, Y, Kawakata, H, Naoi, M, Ward, AK, Murphy, SK, Wienand, J, Lenegan, P, Milev, AM, Murakami, O, Yoshimitsu, N, Kgarume, T & Cichowicz, A 2012, 'Establishment of SATREPS experimental sites in South African gold mines to monitor phenomena associated with earthquake nucleation and rupture', in Y Potvin (ed.), Deep Mining 2012: Proceedings of the Sixth International Seminar on Deep and High Stress Mining, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, pp. 173-187, https://doi.org/10.36487/ACG_rep/1201_12_durrheim

Download citation as:   ris   bibtex   endnote   text   Zotero


Abstract:
Mining-induced earthquakes pose a risk to workers in deep mines, while natural earthquakes pose a risk to everywhere, but especially near plate boundaries. A five year Japanese–South African collaborative project entitled ‘Observational studies to mitigate seismic risks in mines’ commenced in August 2010. Here we report on the achievements of the first 18 months of the project. Faults at Ezulwini, Moab–Khotsong and Driefontein gold mines considered likely to become seismically active during mining activity were modelled using pre-existing geological information supplemented by cores and camera images from new boreholes. As of 30 January 2012, about 90% of about 70 planned boreholes totalling more than 2 km in length had been drilled at project sites to locate fault zones accurately and to deploy sensors. Acoustic emission sensors, accelerometers, strainmeters, and controlled seismic sources were installed to monitor the deformation of the rock mass, the accumulation of damage during the earthquake preparation phase, and changes in stress produced by the propagation of the rupture front. The suite of sensors has greater sensitivity and dynamic range than those typically used in civil or mining engineering applications, making it possible to record very small changes in stress and strain as well as violent rock mass deformation associated with large seismic events. These data sets will be integrated with measurements of stope closure, strong ground motion in stopes, and seismic data recorded by the mine-wide network.

References:
Anglogold Ashanti (2011) 06 Supplementary information: mineral resource and ore reserve, viewed 31 Oct 2011, .
Brenguier, F., Campillo, M., Hadziioannou, C., Shapiro, N.M., Nadeau, R.M. and Larose, E. (2008) Postseismic Relaxation along the San Andereas Fault at Parkfield from continuous seismological observations, Science, Vol. 321, No. 5895, pp. 1478–1481.
Chen, J-H., Froment, B., Liu, Q-Y. and Campillo, M. (2010) Distribution of seismic wave speed changes associated with the 12 May 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 37, L18302, 4 p. .
Chen, W-Y., Lovell, C.W., Haley, G.M. and Pyrak-Nolte, L.J. (1993) Variation of shear-wave amplitude during frictional sliding, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences and Geomechanics Abstracts, Vol. 30, pp. 779–784.
Durrheim, R.J. (2010) Mitigating the rockburst risk in the deep hard rock South African mines: 100 years of research, in Extracting the Science: a century of mining research, J. Brune (ed), Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Inc., pp. 156–171.
Durrheim, R.J., Ogasawara, H., Nakatani, M., Yabe, Y., Milev, A., Cichowicz, A., Kawakata, H., Moriya, H. and the JST-JICA SA research group (2010) Observational Study to Mitigate Seismic Risks in Mines: a new Japanese–South African collaborative project, in Proceedings Fifth International Seminar on Deep and High Stress Mining, M. Van Sint Jan and Y. Potvin (eds), 6–8 October 2010, Santiago, Chile, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, pp. 215–225.
First Uranium (2011) Ezulwini Mine Operations & Resources, viewed 31 October 2011, .
Goldfields (2011) Review of South African operations, Driefontein Gold mine, viewed 18 October 2011, .
Ishii, H., Yamauchi, T. and Kusumoto, F. (1997) Development of high sensitivity bore hole strainmeters and application for rock mechanics and earthquake prediction study, Rock Stress, Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 253–258.
JST (2011) Japan Science and Technology Agency, Tokyo, viewed 25 October 2011, .
Kawakata, H., Yoshimitsu, N., Nakatani, M., Philipp, J., Doi, I., Naoi, M., Ward, T., Visser, V., Morema, G., Khambule, S., Masakale, T., Milev, A., Durrheim, R.J., Ribeiro, L., Ward, M. and Ogasawara, H. (2011) Monitoring transmitted waves across a fault with a high potential for mining induced earthquakes – the Ezulwini gold mine in South Africa, Abstract S31C-2257, AGU 2011 Fall Meeting, 5–9 December 2011, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Lockner, D.A., Walsh, J.B. and Byerlee, J.D. (1977) Changes in seismic velocity and attenuation during deformation of granite, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 82, pp. 6317–6321.
Lucier, A.M., Zoback, M.D., Heesackers, V., Reches, Z. and Murphy, S.K. (2009) Constraining the far-field in situ stress state near a deep South African gold mine, International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences, Vol. 46, pp. 555–567.
Lynch, R. (2010) Progress on active seismic monitoring in mines, in Proceedings Institute of Mine Seismology 21st Seminar on the Future of Monitoring the Seismic Rock Mass Response to Mining, 23–24 May 2011, Hermanus, South Africa, shared presentations.
Manthei, G. (2005) Characterization of acoustic emission sources in a rock salt specimen under triaxial compression, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, , Vol. 95, pp. 1674–1700.
Milev, A.M., Yabe, Y., Naoi, M.M., Nakatani, M., Durrheim, R.J. Ogasawara, H. and Scholz, C.H. (2010) Coseismic and aseismic deformations of the rock mass around deep level mining in South Africa - Joint South African and Japanese study, Abstract S34B-05, AGU Fall Meeting, 13–17 December 2010, San Francisco, U.S.A.
Nakatani, M. (2011) Monitoring of seismic rupture at the closest proximity in South African gold mines, in Proceedings Outcome Report Symposium of Observational Research Program for Prediction of Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption, 3–5 March 2011, Tokyo, Japan.
Nakatani, M., Yabe, Y., Philipp, J., Morema, G., Stanchits, G. and Dresen, G. (2008) Acoustic emission measurements in a deep gold mine in South Africa–project overview and some typical waveforms, Seismological Research Letters, Vol. 79 (2), 311 p.
Naoi, M., Ogasawara, H., Takeuchi, J., Yamamoto, A., Shimoda, N., Morishita, K., Ishii, H., Nakao, S., Van Aswegen, G., Mendecki, A.J., Lenegan, P., Ebrahim-Trollope, R. and Iio, Y. (2006) Small slow-strain steps and their forerunners observed in gold mine in South Africa, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, L12304, .
Niu, F., Silver, P.G., Daley, T.M., Cheng, X. and Majer, E.L. (2008) Pre-seismic velocity changes observed from active source monitoring at the Parkfield SAFOD drill site, Nature 454, , pp. 204–208.
Ogasawara, H. and Kato, H. (2012) A modified CCB0 technique optimised for regular geological drilling procedures in South African gold mines, Stress Measurement Workshop Notes (COR1200), 31 March 2012, Perth, Australia, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth, CD Rom.
Ogasawara, H., Durrheim, R.J., Nakatani, M., Yabe, Y., Milev, A., Cichowicz, A., Kawakata, H. and Moriya, H. (2009a) JST-JICA SA research group, a Japanese–South African collaboration to mitigate seismic risks in deep gold mines, in Proceedings First Hard Rock Safe Safety Conference, J. Van der Westhuizen (ed), 28–30 September 2009, Sun City, South Africa, South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, pp. 115–134.
Ogasawara, H., Kawakata, H., Ishii, M., Nakatani, M., Yabe, Y., Iio, Y. and the Research Group for the Semi-controlled Earthquake-generation Experiments at deep gold mines, South Africa (SeeSA) (2009b) The Semi-controlled Earthquake-generation Experiments at Deep Gold Mines, South Africa – Monitoring at the proximity to elucidate seismogenic process, Journal of Japanese Seismological Society Series 2 (61), pp. S563–S573.
Ogasawara, H., Takeuchi, J., Shimoda, N., Ishii, H., Nakao, S., van Aswegen, G., Mendecki, A.J., Cichowicz, A., Ebrahim-Trollope, R., Kawakata, H., Iio, Y., Ohkura, T., Ando, M. and the Research Group for Semi-controlled Earthquake-generation Experiments in South African deep gold mines (2005) High-resolution strain monitoring during M~2 events in a South African deep gold mine in close proximity to hypocentres, in Proceedings 6th International Symposium on Rockburst and Seismicity in Mines, Y. Potvin and M. Hudyma (eds), 9–11 March 2005, Perth, Australia, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, pp. 385–391.
Ogasawara, H., Yanagidani, T. and Ando, M. (eds) (2002) Seismogenic Process Monitoring, Balkema, Rotterdam, 414 p.
Raax (2008) A product brochure of SC200, viewed 31 October 2011, .
Reches, Z. (2006) Building a natural earthquake laboratory at focal depth, in Proceedings IODP-ICDP Fault Zone Drilling Workshop. Miyazaki, 22–26 May 2006, Miyazaki, Japan.
Sano, O., Mizuta, Y., Murakami, T. and Tanaka, Y. (1997) Sound velocity as a measure of small stress change, Rock Stress, in Proceedings International Symposium on Rock Stress, K. Sugawara and Y. Obara (eds), 7–10 October 1997, Kumamoto, Japan, A.A. Balkema, Brookfield, Vermont, pp. 241– 246.
Sens-Schönfelder, C. and Wegler, U. (2006) Passive image interferometry and seasonal variations of seismic velocities at Merapi volcano, Indonesia, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, L21302, .
Sugawara, K. and Obara, Y. (1999) Draft ISRM suggested method for in situ stress measurement using the Compact Conical-ended Borehole Overcoring (CCBO) technique, International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 36, pp. 307–322.
Van Schoor, M., du Pisani, P. and Vogt, D. (2006) High-resolution, short-range, in-mine geophysical techniques for the delineation of South African orebodies, South African Journal of Science, Vol. 102, pp. 355–360.
Vogt, D. and Van Schoor, M. (2010) The rise of geophysics for in-mine imaging in South African gold and platinum mines, In Extracting the Science: a century of mining research, J. Brune (ed), Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Inc., pp. 189–198.
Watanabe, T. (2010) Development of a sensor to monitor dynamic stress change – towards revealing the slip-weakening process of mine earthquakes, Graduate school of Science, Tohoku University, Japan, Masters thesis.
Watanabe, T., Yabe, Y., Moriya, H., Nakatani, M., Kawakata, H. and Ogasawara, H. (2010) Development of a measurement system of dynamic stress change associated with a 100 m scale faulting in a South African deep gold mine, G-COE Symposium 2010: Earthquakes, Active Tectonics and Geodynamics of Island Arcs, 19–20 February 2010, Sendai, Japan.
Yabe, Y., Philipp, J., Nakatani, M., Morema, G., Naoi, M., Kawakata, H., Igarashi, T., Dresen, G., Ogasawara, H. and JAGUARS (2009) Observation of numerous aftershocks of an Mw1.9 earthquake with an AE network installed in a deep gold mine in South Africa, Earth Planets Space, Vol. 61, e49–e52.
Yoshimitsu, N. and Kawakata, H. (2011) Temporal changes in the Q of broadband P waves transmitting through a fracturing Westerly granite sample under triaxial compressive conditions, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 101(1), pp. 421–426.
Yoshimitsu, N., Kawakata, H. and Takahashi, N. (2009) Broadband, P waves transmitting through fracturing Westerly granite before and after the peak stress under a triaxial compressive condition, Earth Planets Space, Vol. 61, pp. e21–e24.
Yukutake, H. (1989) Fracturing process of Granite inferred from measurements of spatial and temporal variations in velocity during triaxial deformation, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 94(B11), pp. 15,639–15,651.
Yukutake, H., Nakajima, T. and Doi, K. (1988) In situ measurements of elastic wave velocity in a mine, and the effects of water and stress on their variation, Tectonophysics, Vol. 144(1-2), pp. 165–175.




© Copyright 2024, Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG), The University of Western Australia. All rights reserved.
View copyright/legal information
Please direct any queries or error reports to repository-acg@uwa.edu.au