| Description |
A new approach has been developed to use, store, and display seismic information as a time-dependent variable in block models. The research illustrates a new technique to model seismic events and combine them into block models, providing the user with the ability to analyze these data as a function of time in a four-dimensional (4-D) model, with the possibility of combining different analysis criteria to display the data, create sections of the information in any direction needed, and cut the data at any elevation to see what has happened through the life and development of the mine. Seismic data, comprising points in three dimensions placed spatially by their location coordinates (x: east, y: north, and z: elevation), are interpolated into a block model to develop solids in three dimensions (3-D) at various energy or magnitude cutoffs. These data are then accumulated in a (4-D) array which can be used to display the evolution of seismicity over a period of time. The data in the blocks can be filtered using the associated location errors, and the number of seismic stations triggered by the seismic events. A model was developed with seismic data collected between the years 1992 and 2012 from a large underground mine, using panel caving techniques. The data comprised approximately 2.1 million seismic events. The seismicity was interpolated using inversedistance interpolations to a block model that consisted of 1,875,000 blocks of 20x20x20 m, with block model extents of 2.5, 3, and 2 km in the east, north, and elevation directions, respectively. The model was developed for the entire mine, using yearly and monthly resolutions for the accumulated parameters. The results from the accumulated energy model were used to analyze the premining seismic conditions of a project that started in 2010 and that it is located between two other projects, one to the north that started in the year 1990 and the other to the south that started in 1998. The seismic history of the mine can be displayed and analyzed using the developed technique, defining areas of progressive deterioration associated to the energy levels released by the seismic events. |
