Determining areas in an inclined coal seam floor prone to water-inrush by micro-seismic monitoring

The failure depth of the coal seam floor is one important consideration that must be kept in mind when mining is carried out above a confined aquifer. Determining the floor failure depth is the essential precondition for predicting the water-resisting ability of the floor. We have used a high-precision microseismic monitoring technique to overcome the limited amount of data available from field measurements. The failure depth of a coal seam floor, especially an inclined coal seam floor, may be more accurately estimated by monitoring the continuous, dynamic failure of the floor. The monitoring results indicate the failure depth of the coal seam floor near the workface conveyance roadway (the lower crossheading) is deeper and that the failure range is wider here compared to the coal seam floor near the return airway (the upper crossheading). The results of micro-seismic monitoring show that the dangerous area for water-inrush from the coal seam floor may be identified. This provides an important field measurement that helps ensure safe and highly efficient mining of the inclined coal seam above the confined aquifer at the Taoyuan Coal Mine.