Combining deep neural network and spatio-temporal clustering to automatically assess rockburst and seismic hazard – Case study from Marcel coal mine in Upper Silesian Basin, Poland

Abstract

Mine induced seismic events are a major safety concern in mining and require careful monitoring and management to reduce their effects. Therefore, an essential step in assessing seismic and rock burst hazards is the analysis of mine seismicity. Recently, deep neural networks have been used to automatically determine seismic wave arrival times, surpassing human performance and allowing their use in seismic data analysis such as seismic event location and seismic energy calculation. In order to properly automate the rockburst and seismic hazard assessment deep neural network phase picker and a spatio-temporal clustering method were utilized. Seismic and rockburst hazards were statistically quantified using two-way contingency tables for two categorical variables: seismic energy level of mine tremors and number of clusters. Correlations between several spatio-temporal clusters and a statistical association between two categorical variables: seismic energy level and cluster number indicate an increase of seismic hazard in the Marcel hard coal mine in Poland. A new automated tool has been elaborated to automatically identify high-stress areas in mines in the form of spatio-temporal clusters.