Source Mechanisms of Mine-Related Seismicity, Savuka Mine, South Africa

Abstract

We report full moment tensor solutions for 76 mine tremors with moment magnitudes (Mw) between 0.5 and 2.6 recorded by a network of 20 high-frequency geophones in a deep gold mine in South Africa. Source mechanisms convey important information on how in-mine stresses are relaxed, and understanding the nature of such mechanisms is essential for improving our assessment of rock mass response to mining. Our approach has consisted of minimizing the L2 norm of the difference between observed and predicted P, SV, and SH spectral amplitudes, with visually assigned polarities, to constrain all six independent components of the seismic moment tensor. Our results reveal the largest principal stresses in the mine are com- pressive, oriented near vertically, and relaxed through a mix of volumetric closure and normal faulting, consistent with a gravity-driven closure of the mined-out areas. Pre- vious moment tensor studies in deep mines had suggested that the distribution of seis- mic sources in terms of the volumetric-shear mix was bimodal. A bimodal distribution is compatible with our moment tensor solutions only for moment magnitudes above 2.2. Events in the 0:5 <Mw <2:2 moment magnitude range display a continuous distribution of their volumetric-shear mix. Online Material: Focal parameters for mine tremors at Savuka.