Investigation into the Temperature Fields of the Carboniferous Rock Mass in the Czech Part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin

Abstract

Relatively accurate data regarding the temperature distribution in a rock mass can be obtained from measurements carried out in short boreholes drilled directly into mine workings. Such thermal field measurements were undertaken in selected mine workings in all active mines of the Ostrava-Karviná District (OKR), situated in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. A temperature field survey of the rock mass at high depths was performed in the years 2011-2013, with a total of 204 valid in situ measurements of initial temperature in the carboniferous rock mass recorded, ranging from 27.0°C to 48.9°C. All measurements were registered in a newly created database.During the project, many archival sources of individual temperature measurements made in the OKR were found, complementing and extending the existing knowledge base regarding the distribution of the temperature field.A new spatial distribution model of primary temperature values for the carboniferous massif in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin was the final output of the presented project. The main purpose of this spatial modelling and data visualisation was to create an image of the area's complex topological arrangement based on the available data. Following the generated thermal model, a 3D map of OKR temperature fields at around 1000 m depth was generated. In order to determine the temperature at a particular position in the thermal model, an executable plugin was created. It is also possible to import the final thermal model of the carboniferous massif in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin into commercial computational software for the determination of appropriate mine air conditions.