This blog provides a commentary on landslide events occurring worldwide, including the landslides themselves, latest research, and conferences and meetings. The blog is written on a personal basis by Dave Petley, who is the Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

This blog is a personal project that does not seek to represent Durham University.

Friday, 19 November 2010

The Pike River Coal Mine accident

Although the key focus of my research is landslides, I also spend some of my time working with mining companies.  Thus, the Pike River accident in New Zealand is of interest.  The blast today appears to have left at least 27 miner trapped underground; at the time of writing there has been no contact with the missing workers, although rescue operations are clearly underway.  All modern mines have fully trained mine rescue teams that lead the way in such events.  They regularly liaise with the emergency services, and a contingency plan will be in place.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Prayers are with the men at this time. Hope the see the happy ending that was part of Chile last month.
David

AIMR Training photos said...

Hello,
I want to know if the underground miners had escape ba I know they had the self rescuer system but did they have the ocba check out the following link http://www.google.com.au/search?rlz=1T4ADFA_enAU393AU393&q=underground+fire+fighting&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=vid:1&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv

In Australia they have refuge chambers and breathing apuartus so that the miners can escape by them selfs.

anthony tristram jones said...

Have the rescue crew considered playing music loudly via ventilation shafts to boost survivors morale - vital i would have thought ?

anthony tristram jones , rtd surveyor , poole, dorset uk - em anthonytristramJ@aol.com

a t j

anthony tristram jones said...

as a rider to my previous comment

if i was down below , however brave i was , would posibly feel scared and dissorientated . . . . so i humbly suggest action as previous message , most definitely involving the family in song choice

God bless all invoved

a t j