Mine exploration
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Mine exploration is a hobby in which people visit abandoned mines and quarries (and sometimes working mines) to explore, document, and record, including by surveying and photography. In this respect, mine exploration could be considered a specialist branch of industrial archaeology, but in many ways it is closer to caving, with many participants being actively involved in exploring mines and caves. Mine exploration uses a similar type of equipment to caving, including helmets, head lamps, Wellington boots and sometimes a specialised over-suit.
There is a considerable variety in the sites the mine explorers visit: in many cases mine exploring usually involves less crawling and more walking than caving, as mines were purposefully excavated to give access for people and thus some disused mines have been adapted for tourism or organised groups such as outdoor pursuits centres. Conversely, access to some mines may require Single Rope Technique, for example if a vertical shaft is the only entrance. SRT may also be used inside a mine, for example if the original links between different levels are inaccessible. Similarly, some traverses and slopes may be roped for safety, particularly if organised groups are to be taken into the mine.
In some ways mine exploration is similar to Urban Exploration, sharing the same interest in gaining access to abandoned locations, which in many cases may be restricted. A similar ethos is often found, that of leaving sites in the same state that they were in before they were visited. The common phrase for this standpoint is the Sierra Club's motto: "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints."
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[edit] Why do it?
The easy answer to the question is the old mountaineering saying "Because it's there". Like many hobbies or sports, mine exploring appeals to a certain group of people, while many people wonder what they see in it. An interest in industrial archeology may be a contributory factor and 'relics' found underground may include mining equipment such as pumps and drilling equipment, cranes, narrow gauge railway tracks, wagons and locomotives.
Abandoned mines may have larger features such as timber bridges, inclines, waterwheels, or merely tunnels and vast chambers. Mine explorers may on occasion boat across underground lakes, particularly if this enable a trip through a mine working that comes out of a different adit to that used for entry: such trips can be challenging and regarded as an achievement by the participant in a way not dissimilar to a mountaineers conquering a hill.
Photography of mine workings is often a significant component of the desire to explore abandoned mine workings and there are many websites dedicated to hosting such photographs (see below). Underground photography requires specialist techniques such as light painting or an 'open flash' method and it can take a considerable amount of time to become proficient.
It is, of course, possible that, like cavers, mine explorers may view their hobby as one of the best ways of getting away from the rest of the world and going somewhere where they can be disturbed by no-one; and can not be contacted by mobile phone or email.
[edit] Access
There are many abandoned mines in the world - for example, it is estimated that there are approximately 500,000 abandoned mines in the United States alone. However, access to many of these is not possible for a variety of reasons, including:
- Restricted Access: Legal access to explore mines is not always possible, even though it may be physically possible to get in. The sites of old mines are often taken over by the public bodies such as the Forestry Commission, National Trust or by private land owners who consider the liability risks of access to be sufficient to justify blocking off access permanently, a common approach being to bulldoze the adits and cap any shafts. In other instances, entrances may be gated in order to restrict access to those approved by the landowner.
- Re-use: The sites of old mines are sometimes taken over for new uses such as data storage or mushroom cultivation: the owner will rarely permit public access.
- Collapse: As workings age, the roofs of passageways and chambers can fail. In doing so, the collapsed area itself is no longer accessible and any workings beyond that point will become inaccessibe if there remains no other way around. There are many mines that have suffered a small collapse right at the entrance (often the most vulnerable part) sealing off significant sized workings beyond.
- Flooding: Almost all working mines require pumps to remove water, with the exception of those being self-draining via deep drainage adits. Once a mine is abandoned, the pumps are usually turned off and the mine slowly fills with water until a level is reached where water can drain out: this is usually the lowest adit. However, it is possibly to find flooded sections in mines which are above a dry adit as workings are often very complex: in some cases reservoirs may have been created in higher chambers to provide power for machinery below.
- Technical Limitations: Some mines are easy 'walkabouts', while others require expertise, skill and equipment to explore; for example SRT may be needed to gain access via a vertical shaft.
[edit] Potential dangers
Mine exploration is considered a dangerous activity by many. In the USA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has run an annual "Stay Out-Stay Alive" national public safety campaign to warn children about the dangers of exploring and playing on mine property. They claim that since 1999, nearly 150 children and adults have died in recreational accidents at active and abandoned mine and quarry sites, although the majority of these were not related to mine exploration.[1] These statistics are very minimal compared to many other popular forms or recreational activities. For those who are prepared and educated on proper safety and gear, exploration can be a very safe and enjoyable hobby.
Some abandoned mines contain adits which are much like horizontal shafts, and winzes or air vents that are much smaller and can be at any angle under ground. Climbing through these shafts, adits, and winzes can be very dangerous due to their unseen entrances and exits.
Mines were generally constructed and maintained to be safe while they were operational, thus abandoned mines may have decayed to a point where they could have become dangerous. Indeded, some support structures may have been removed before abandonment for re-use elsewhere; or supporting pillars may have been quarried away, leaving the chambering unstable. There are a number of potential hazards that face mine explorers:
- Surface shafts: the ground around abandoned mine shafts and open pits may be weak and could cave-in without warning. Undergrowth may hide shafts, while timber used for capping may have rotted to a point where it will collapse if weight is put on it.
- Collapses: the effects of blasting and weathering destabilize once-strong bedrock through time, in particular adits, but also tunnel and chamber roofs and walls. Support timber props, ladders and other similar structures may appear safe but could have degraded. Similarly, waste rock tipped down chambers may be unstable and rockslides may occur if they are walked on.
- Falling down vertical openings is the most common cause of death and injury in abandoned mines. Winzes are vertical shafts sunk from a tunnel and these can be hidden by darkness, water, loose debris or false floors. False floors may also be present in substantial lengths of tunnel, where the floor level has been worked (understoped). Such floors may be supported by rotten wood, but surfaced with rock and not clearly distinguishable from a solid floor.
- Water: water in mines is often deep and can be dangerously cold: if it has steep sides, then it may not be easy to climb out. Seemingly shallow water can conceal sharp objects, drop-offs, and other hazards.
- Bad Air: old mine workings may be hazardous simply due to pockets of blackdamp (still air with low oxygen levels); or due to high concentrations of methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulfide.
- Explosives such as dynamite, black powder or blasting caps may have been abandoned in old mines. Many explosives become increasingly unstable with age and could be detonated by the slightest movement or even the vibrations from a footfall.
In spite of the potential risks involved in mine exploration, the danger to the experienced mine explorer is relatively low: as the MHSA state, the majority of accidents involve people who are unprepared.
[edit] Locations
[edit] UK
The extent of Britain's man-made underground world may come as a surprise to the layman. The total length of all the disused mine tunnels sprawling under the ground has never been measured but would easily fall into the thousands of miles (sometimes over 100 miles of track in one mine alone). These workings range from just below the surface to a great depth (1.1 km below the ground are the deepest in the UK), sometimes even leaving the mainland and going several miles out under the sea. The tunnels run through mountains and under cities; they connect the cavernous stopes and cathedral sized chambers from which the minerals were extracted.
Some typical mine exploration locations and type of mines are:
- Bath stone - Corsham, Combe Down.
- Slate mines - North Wales.
- Lead Mines - Nenthead, Cumbria, The Lake District and Derbyshire lead mining history.
- Tin Mines - Devon Cornwall, Geevor Tin Mine
[edit] USA
There are thought to be approximately 500,000 mines in the USA. Some examples of mines frequented by explorers includes:
- Iron mines of the north east - in particular, the Highlands region of NJ and NY and the Anthracite region of PA.
- California
- Utah
- Most gold mines located in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona.
[edit] CANADA
Some examples of mines frequented by explorers includes:
- British Columbia - There are hundreds of explored and unexplored mines in British Columbia.
- Monarch/Kicking Horse Mine Field BC
- Mineral King Panoroama BC
[edit] Links
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Mojave Underground - Mine and Cave Exploration in Utah
- CAMCE - California Association of Mine and Cave Exploring - Historical Preservation
- Abandoned Mines - Abandoned Mine exploration and photography
- AditNow - Photographic database of mine exploration and forum
- Darkplaces - Underground exploration forum
- Iron Miners - Exploring mines in the mid-Atlantic region of the US
- Mine Explorer - Photographic database of mine exploration
- Subterranea Britannica - Definitive Cold War & Underground
- Nettleden.com - Secret underground South West
- mine-explorer.co.uk - Online Database of explorable mines