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Progress Report on Tatum House Subsidence issues Page 3 <br />April 12, 1995 <br /> <br />The conclusions of the report on the study with respect to the surface were: <br />• There was not enough data to determine the angle of draw or the magnitude of <br />maximum subsidence. (page 5-38) <br />• Vertical displacement of the overburden began when the mining face was 500 ft <br />from the monitoring point. (page 7-3) The coal seam is 600 ft deep at this point, <br />and the bottom of the effected extensometer rod was 194 ft above the mine. <br />• Movements both horizontal and vertical were noted all along the survey lines of <br />surface monuments. (page 7-3) <br />• The overburden appears to subside in a relatively coherent rockmass. (page 7-3) <br />• There is a strong suggestion that the groundwater in the overburden is in direct <br />communication with the surface waters of the Purgatoire River. (page 7-4) <br />Measurements were made on the surface, survey lines 1 and 3 measured the effects <br />of room and pillar mining, survey line 2 measured the effects of longwall mining. <br />The survey lines were 94 surface monuments arranged in lines to measure the <br />changes in elevation and horizontal coordinates as mining progressed underground. <br />A review of the data analysis, demonstrates that the vertical displacements on the <br />surface tended to show a raising of the land surface on the order of a 0.1 ft., more <br />than 500 ft. in front of the mining face, regardless of the type of mining, and then <br />there was a settling as the mining face was developed past the point. Over the <br />longwall the settlement was more than 3 ft., on the other lines over the room and <br />pillar mining, from 0.5 ft to 1.5 ft. The same effect of raising the land surface was <br />noted on each survey line. The surveys were not completed for the full subsidence. <br />Two points were chosen that appear were only effected by the mining under study, <br />the effects of other mining in the area is also noted in the report. An estimate of the <br />depth to mining and the amount of surface displacement on a specific date, <br />indicates that surface movement occurred at angles of 36° 30' and 37° 10' measured <br />from a vertical line at the face to the location of the surface monument. <br />There was substantial horizontal displacement measured also, but the time <br />relationship was not well defined in the report. <br />The measured raising of the land surface has been noted in other studies for other <br />mines, and has been referred to as a "wave effect" by some investigators. Sometimes <br />t'.Zis phenomenon can be attributed to a sliding of the surface soils down hillsides or <br />"piling up" as the result of surface deformations. The important observation is that <br />there was no difference in the initial effects on the surface between ]ongwall or room <br />and pillar mining. <br />