MINE SUBSIDENCE ENGINEERING
Natural processes include various karst phenomena, thawing of permafrost, consolidation, oxidation of organic soils, deformation of the slow crust (isostatic adjustment), normal failure, sinking of the boiler or extraction of liquid lava from beneath a solid crust.
Human activities such as underground mining or the extraction of underground fluids, for example. Oil, natural gas or groundwater. Land subsidence is important for geologists, geotechnical engineers, surveyors, engineers, town planners, landowners and the general public. Subsidence is a global problem.
Various types of underground mining, and specifically methods that intentionally cause the extracted vacuum to collapse (such as piling, long-pit mining, and any method of metalliferous mining that uses "caving" as "block caving" or " sub-level caving ") will result in subsidence of the surface.
Mining-induced subsidence is relatively predictable in magnitude, manifestation, and extent, except when there is a sudden collapse of an underground pillar tunnel or near the surface (usually, very old jobs.) Subsidence induced by mining It is almost always very localized on the surface above the mined area, plus a margin around the outside.
The vertical magnitude of the subsidence itself does not usually cause problems, except in the case of drainage (including natural drainage); the deformations of tension and compression associated to the surface, the curvature, the inclinations and the horizontal displacements that are the cause of the worst damages to the natural environment, the buildings and the infrastructure.