ALBERT

Description: A series of six seismic events that occurred in one panel of Rudna copper-ore mine in Poland is studied. Although the events had comparable magnitudes, from 3.0 to 3.7, their ground effects were very diverse. Comparing the accelerations observed at various locations with their estimates from ground motion prediction equation the events split into three distinct pairs. The first pair ground effects exceed considerably the estimates at most of observation points, the second pair effects are abnormally high at short epicentral distances, whereas the third pair effects are much less than the estimates at most of observation points. The similarities in ground effects correlate with the fault mechanisms similarities. The first two pairs’ events, whose ground effects were strong, exhibit thrust faulting and the third pair events, which caused unexpectedly low ground motion exhibit normal faulting mechanisms. The paired events have also similar apparent stress values. These stress values of the two events of very weak ground effects are distinctly lower than the values of other four events. All events demonstrate dominating non-double-couple components in the overall mechanisms. A kinematic source analysis indicates that these events have extended rather than point sources, and five of them have distinct directivity effects. A static stress transfer analysis signifies interrelations between these events. The rupture of all events started in areas of Coulomb failure function increase due to the cumulative effect of previous events. Linking results of the ground effects, source, rupture and interaction analyses tentative geodynamic conclusions are formulated. The untypical and diverse ground effects of the studied events result likely from the events’ complexity expressed by tensile source mechanisms, finite sources, directivity of ruptures and nearly horizontal rupture planes. The above features seem to be implied by a superposition of coseismic alterations of stress field and stress changes due to mining. One cannot, therefore, exclude the possibility of other cases of significant deviations from the expected ground motion amplitudes, due to specific geodynamics in another parts of the mine. An analysis like that done within this work can allow, however, foreseeing such extreme surface impacts.