Crandall Mine Collapse

In 2007, there was a big rock mechanics story. The Crandall mine collapsed, killed 6 people, and then killed the rescuers! Naturally, the owners immediately blamed the nasty earthquake gods, did the PM shrug, and said: "Who knew?".

Of course, the high priests of the earthquake gods cried foul, and set out to prove that it was owner greed and incompetent oversight that caused the disaster (much like Canadian disasters!). They analyzed all the seismograms and came up with the fact that the main shock was the cavern collapse, with numerous aftershocks.


Here's a map of all the seismicity in the area. Wow, it's all confined to the coal mining areas! And of course, all this stupidity follows Harold's Power Law for Man-Made Disasters.

Still, this has some fascinating rock mechanics. I wonder it they have to do anything special now (like funding science!), or it's all back to normal.