STORM2K

oh wow! I hope they can get them out safely.

Correction: It was not an earthquake, rather the collapse was so big that it registered as a quake.

Have they been able to make any contact with them at all?

How in the world could it register as an earthquake? Have there been many others like this? Any new news?

Brent wrote:Correction: It was not an earthquake, rather the collapse was so big that it registered as a quake.

CNN is reporting that the cave-in occurred after the earthquake. i'm no geologist, but i have doubts that a mine cave-in could cause a 4.o earthquake with an epicenter 5 miles away.

They haven't had any contact with the miners from what I just heard.

I'm keeping hope that they are still safe.

anymore news?

University of Utah seismograph stations recorded seismic waves of 3.9 magnitude around early Monday in the area of the mine, causing speculation that a minor earthquake had caused the cave-in. Scientists later realized the collapse at the mine had caused the disturbance, reported to authorities around 4 a.m. But by late afternoon, they said a natural earthquake could not be ruled out and more information was needed to conclusively determine what happened.

ANYways, the first attempt to reach them failed.

thanks for the update.

A 4.0 isn't a big quake at all. It makes sense because its hard to see a 4.0 quake causing a cave in.

I can't believe the owner ranting and raving on TV. His lawyer must have been having fits.
If they died, the earthquake killed them. Right!

any new news on this?

artist wrote:any new news on this?

Officials say it will take 3 days to reach them, they have had NO contact with them at all. Honestly, it doesn't sound good. They said ***IF*** they are still alive they would have enough food and water for several days, but there's no evidence they have.

Yikes, I just heard it will take a WEEK to get to them. Apparently aftershocks have held back the rescue operation.

This is NOT gonna end well... I don't see how a week gives them a chance(assuming they are actually alive now)

I dont see this ending well. A week is going to be very hard to get by.

Aftershocks? So was there an earthquake or not?

Cookiely wrote:I can't believe the owner ranting and raving on TV.

He's awfully defensive about the possibility of "retreat mining", too. I wonder if these guys were doing retreat mining and that's what caused the cave-in?

If you don't know, retreat mining is where they go into an area that's all mined out except for the support columns, and they pull down the support columns to get that last bit of coal. The result, of course, is that the area caves in. If they were doing this and made a mistake, they could easily pull the roof down on themselves. As far as I know, retreat mining is illegal.

gtalum wrote:

Cookiely wrote:I can't believe the owner ranting and raving on TV.

He's awfully defensive about the possibility of "retreat mining", too. I wonder if these guys were doing retreat mining and that's what caused the cave-in?

If you don't know, retreat mining is where they go into an area that's all mined out except for the support columns, and they pull down the support columns to get that last bit of coal. The result, of course, is that the area caves in. If they were doing this and made a mistake, they could easily pull the roof down on themselves. As far as I know, retreat mining is illegal.

Wow! That sounds incredibly dangerous and certainly should be outlawed.. Sheesh I wouldn't think there would be that much coal behind the supports for anyone to take such a foolish risk.

Let's hope not. I just pray they will be ok. I did here he had at least a weeks worth of oxygen in there for each of the guys and enough water as well. I just hope this turns out ok, not like the bridge collapse. (guess that depends on how you look at it though - many did survive)