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Mining and the Environment
Published in Sheila Devasahayam, Kim Dowling, Manoj K. Mahapatra, Sustainability in the Mineral and Energy Sectors, 2016
Greg You, Dakshith Ruvin Wijesinghe
Similarly, the land subsidence may also alter and create impacts on the surface water. Owing to ground subsidence, fissures can be generated. This can lead to the loss of water from the water body. When the water body is considerably large such as a lake or a river, mine floods may be triggered, which can be catastrophic. Therefore, there are more strict rules and regulations for the mining activities under the surface water bodies. Similar to the surface water bodies, groundwater can also be affected. The fissures can alter the hydrogeological regime in the region (Wang et al., 2008). The local geology, especially the presence of such discontinuities as faults, folds or joints can influence the subsidence to various extents. The loss of water can directly affect the surface water eco-systems in the long term. Subsidence also increases the chances to generate ‘sink holes’. These sink holes can be further developed and cause structural damages to buildings (Sengupta, 1993; Darling and Nieto, 2011).
Land Subsidence
Published in Frank R. Spellman, Land Subsidence Mitigation, 2017
Fissures can undercut and damage infrastructure and present a hazard to the public. Hazards associated with earth fissures are generally more local and include damage to homes and buildings, roads, dams, canals, and sewer and utility lines, in addition to providing a conduit for contaminated surface water to rapidly enter groundwater aquifers. Below are some of the hazards directly associated with earth fissures (ALSG, 2007):Cracked or collapsing roadsBroken pipes and utility linesDamaged or breached canalsCracked foundation/separated wallsLoss of agricultural landLivestock and wildlife injury or deathSevered or deformed railroad trackDamaged well casing or wellheadDisrupted drainageContaminated groundwater aquiferSudden discharge of ponded waterHuman injury or death
Investigation and Exploration of Dam and Reservoir Site
Published in Suchintya Kumar Sur, A Practical Guide to Construction of Hydropower Facilities, 2019
Before going through the details of the investigation process, it is essential to clarify and define some special and extraordinary geological features to the readers, especially those who are students, to have a clear understanding of the adverse geological constraints/problems. These features, if remained unidentified and untreated, may pose a threat to the stability of the dam. Joints: Fractures along which particularly no displacement of rocks has occurred. A crack produced in the rock under the action of internal forces during its cooling and drying.Fault: Fractures along which the rocks on one side have been displaced relative to those on the other side. A fault is a fracture surface along which rocks have been relatively displaced in both directions vertically and horizontally. An earthquake may occur due to the sudden movement of a big fault.Fault breccia: Angular or sub angular rock fragments produced by fracture and grinding during faulting and distributed within or adjacent to the fault plane that will have very low bearing capacity.Cleavage: Fissures that develop in rocks under the action of external tectonic factors.Fissures: A long, narrow opening that has occurred in the rock by cracking or dislocation.Seam is a thin layer or strata of rock, coal or mineral, etc.Bedding: Some rocks such as sedimentary and metamorphic rocks occur in the form of layers or strata bounded by parallel surface.FoliationCavitiesDykeSinkhole
Influence of two unparallel fissures on the mechanical behaviours of rock-like specimens subjected to uniaxial compression
Published in European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2020
Peng Feng, Feng Dai, Yi Liu, Nuwen Xu, Tao Zhao
In the literature, many physical experiments have been conducted to understand the mechanical behaviours of fissured rocks (Li, Chen, & Wang, 2005) or rock-like materials (Einstein, Nelson, Bruhn, & Hirschfeld, 1969; Feng, Dai, Liu, Xu, & Fan, 2017; Liu, Dai, Dong, Xu, & Feng, 2018), utilizing acoustic emission (AE) technology (Yin, Wong, & Chau, 2014), high-speed photographic measurement (Cheng, Zhou, Zhu, & Qian, 2016), computerised tomography (CT) scanning (Yu, Yang, Ranjith, Zhu, & Yang, 2016), scanning electron microscsope (Wong & Einstein, 2009a) and digital image correlation (Alam, Loukili, & Grondin, 2012). They reported that the pre-existing fissures can significantly affect the strength and deformation behaviour of the specimens, depending on the different geometrical parameters of fissures, such as fissure inclination angle, spacing, bridging angle, etc. Moreover, the crack coalescence behaviour of fissured specimens was assessed under uniaxial compression tests. Wong and Chau (1998) classified the coalescence modes of fissured specimens into nine categories, five of which were classified based on the combination of wing and shear cracks. Sagong and Bobet (2002) concluded the coalescence modes into nine categories based on three crack types including tensile crack, quasi-coplanar and oblique shear crack. Wong and Einstein (2009b) displayed nine coalescence patterns of fissured specimens based on tensile cracks, shear cracks as well as mixed tensile-shear cracks.