4 ROCKBURST SOURCE MECHANISMS

In this chapter the different mechanisms causing rockbursts will be discussed. A summary of
the different terms used by other authors is also given. Many authors (eg., Cook, 1976;
Salamon, 1983; Ortlepp and Stacey, 1994) seem to agree on the basic definitions of the terms
seismic event and rockburst. A seismic event is the sudden release of potential or stored
energy in the rock. The released energy is then radiated as seismic waves. A rockburst is
defined as a mining-induced seismic event that causes damage to openings in the rock. There
are two general types of seismic events; those directly associated with stopes and those
associated with movement on major geologic discontinuities (Gibowicz and Kijko, 1994).

4.1 Seismic events associated with stopes

These types of events occur in close proximity to excavations, and are a direct result of the
stress redistribution around the excavation. They are most likely to occur where the stress is
highest. The characteristic of this type of event is that the damage and the failure coincide.
That is, the location of the damage and the location of the energy release are one and the
same. Several types of failures belong to this category, the three most common will be
described here; strain burst, pillar burst and face burst. These types of events cannot occur if
there is no opening (Ortlepp, 1997).

4.1.1 Strain burst

A strain burst is probably the most common form of rockburst both in mines and in civil
engineering structures. The term is used to describe an event of violent failure where
relatively small pieces of rock are ejected from the boundary of an excavation. This failure
causes spalling or slabbing of surface rock; hence pre-existing geologic discontinuities are not
required for fallouts to occur. Strain bursts may be a form of local rock mass failure. The rock
pieces that are ejected are usually thin with sharp edges. If the rock near the excavation is
jointed the failure does not go through intact rock, but instead causes buckling of thin
laminates of near-surface rock. A strain burst usually causes relatively limited damage, since
the amount of energy that is released is fairly small.

4.1.2 Pillar burst

Pillar burst is a term used for violent pillar failures, and is also a result of local stress
redistribution. The damage resulting from a pillar burst can be severe depending on the

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location of the failed pillar and the state of surrounding pillars and rock. The amount of
energy released by a pillar burst is much larger than that from a strainburst, so the radiated
seismic wave may cause damage in other areas such as shake-down of loose rock. The sudden
loss of support from one pillar causes stresses to be redistributed to nearby pillars, which in
turn may fail violently depending on how close they are to failure. A domino effect of pillar
failures may result, which may lead to collapse of that mining area.

Face burst is a form of strain burst and is caused by the accumulation of strain energy in the
fractured rock mass ahead of the face. Face bursts are accompanied by violent ejection of
material from the face into the excavated area.

4.2 Seismic events associated with geologic discontinuities

These seismic events are also a result of stress redistribution from mining, but on a larger
scale. As a mine grows, a larger area around it is affected by the stress redistribution. This can
lead to reactivation of faults in the area or violent formation of new fractures through intact
rock. The most common type of large-scale seismic event is fault slip. Another phenomenon
is shear rupture, whose occurrence has so far only been positively proven in South Africa
(Ortlepp, 1997). The damage caused by these events can be very severe, and they can affect a
large area and even be felt on the surface. These events can be described as mining induced
earthquakes, and may also cause damage on the surface.

4.2.1 Fault slip

Fault slip is the term used to describe slip on a geologic structure. Mining activities can
influence faults in two ways. The first is that mining in the area reduces the clamping force
across the fault, which leads to reduced shear resistance along the fault. The other is that
mining increases the shear force along the fault, so that slip occurs. The damage to
excavations is caused by the energy that is released when the slip occurs. The released energy
is radiated as a seismic wave, and when the wave hits an opening in the rock it causes

- ejection of blocks defined by existing joints,

- a tensile stress close to the boundary of the opening, which results in a tensile failure and
ejection of the failed rock, and
- a large compressional stress, which results in a failure that can be followed by ejection of
rock.

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4.2.2 Shear rupture
Shear rupture is a shear failure through intact rock, which occurs suddenly and causes
radiation of seismic waves and damage to nearby excavations. It requires a triaxial state of
stress and occurs when the compressive stresses ahead of a mining face exceeds the shear
strength of the rock. Another requirement is that the rock mass has to be free of joints. The
type of damage caused by shear rupture is the same as for a fault slip event.

4.3 Rockburst definitions

4.3.1 Definition
The definition of a rockburst mechanism seems to differ among different authors. Some make
a distinction between the seismic source mechanism and the rockburst damage mechanism
(Ortlepp, 1997) while others use the term modes of failure (Kaiser et al., 1995), to describe
the same occurrences.

Ortlepp and Stacey (1994) suggested a classification scheme for seismic event sources in
tunnels, see Table 4-1. Their classification was based on first motions from seismic records,
the Richter magnitude of the events, and the postulated source mechanism.

Table 4-1 A suggestion for a classification scheme of seismic event sources in tunnels
(after Ortlepp and Stacey, 1994).

Postulated source First motion from Richter magnitude

Seismic event
mechanism seismic record ML
Superficial spalling with
Strain-bursting Usually undetected,
violent ejection of -0.2 to 0
could be implosive
fragments
Outward expulsion of pre-
Buckling existing larger slabs Implosive 0 to 1.5
parallel to opening
Violent expulsion of rock
Face crush Implosive 1.0 to 2.5
from tunnel face
Violent propagation of
Shear rupture shear fracture through Double-couple shear 2.0 to 3.5
intact rock mass
Violent renewed movement
Fault slip Double-couple shear 2.5 to 5.0
on existing fault

Ortlepp (1997) proposed a rockburst flow chart (Figure 4.1) to visualize the connection
between his definitions of source mechanism and damage mechanism, and to show a few of

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the large number of factors contributing to the problem. First he describes event types (in the
horizontal direction) – strain burst, buckling, face crush/pillar burst, shear rupture and fault
slip. He then continues to define some important parameters describing the source
mechanism, such as magnitude, instability process, seismic signature and requisite conditions.
The instability processes are: spalling/buckling, euler-type instability, compression
slabbing/column crushing/dilation, and the stick slip behavior on faults. Seismic signature
describes the reaction to the event, e.g., if the event is implosive, if it is a shear event etc. The
last parameter is the requisite condition, which for a strain burst is that the failure surface
must be close to a free surface. If all conditions for the source mechanism are met a seismic
event takes place.

Ortlepp defined rockburst as a seismic event coupled with a damage mechanism and a
damage type. The damage mechanism depends on factors that determine the intensity of the
seismic impulse and factors that influence the site response. A few of the factors he mentions
as important for the intensity of the seismic impulse are amount of energy available, source
distance and dimension, and geological structures. Factors that influence the site response are
for example excavation geometry, characteristics of the surrounding rock (strength, brittleness
etc.), and characteristics of the existing support (strength, density, quality etc.). Finally he
specifies some damage types, for instance ejection, bulking, falls of ground, and shake-out.

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 EVENT strain burst buckling face crush, pillar shear rupture fault slip
TYPE burst

Magnitude -0.2 to 0 0 to 1.5 1.0 to 2.5 2.0 to 3.5 2.5 to 5.0

(ML Richter)
SOURCE MECHANISM

Instability spalling / euler-type compression stick-slip release of strain

process buckling instability slabbing, column energy from stressed volume
crushing, dilation surrounding slip surface

Seismic implosive implosive implosive plus double-couple fault-slip first

signature shear motion

Requisite failure surface free surface stress > strength shear stress exceeds
close to a free >> lamina in destroyed
conditions surface shear strength shear strength
thickness volume
of rock at asperity

SEISMIC EVENT

Factors amount of source particle motion; shear geological structure or

energy available distance or compression major excavations
determining
DAMAGE MECHANISM

intervening to cause
intensity of reflection, shielding,
seismic rate of liberation source ray path properties channeling or focusing of
impulse of energy dimension stress transient

Factors excavation characteristics of surrounding rock: strength, brittleness, fabric,

geometry: size structure, intensity of induced fracturing
influencing shape
site
response site amplification characteristics of existing support: length, strength, density,
features: stress yieldability, quality of containment cladding
intensity,
distribution

DAMAGE ejection disruption and convergence or shake-out

TYPE displacement heave

buckling gravity fall of ground associated with large, distant

enhancement seismic event

ROCKBURST

Figure 4.1. Rockburst flow chart, after Ortlepp, 1997.

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4.3.2 Classification / categorization of rockbursts
This section will treat the different ways of classifying, categorizing and naming rockbursts
that can be found in the literature. In Table 4-2 some of the different methods are summarized
and in the following text each method is described in more detail.

Table 4-2 Compilation of authors and their different methods of classification.

Method of classification
Amount of rock Underlying
Distance Relation to
Author displaced, maximum mechanism
from /effect mining
magnitude, causing
inside mine situation and
amplitude on seismic
workings stress level
seismograph events
Scott, 1990 X
Scott et al., 1997 X
Johnston and Einstein, 1990 X
Knoll and Kuhnt, 1990 X X
Gaviglio et al. 1990 X
Krishnamurthy and Shringarputale, 1990 X
Bigarrre et al. 1993 X
Vervoort and Moyson, 1997 X
Wong 1992 X
Morrison and MacDonald, 1990 X
Hedley, 1992 X
Brummer and Rorke, 1990 X
Gill et al. 1993 X
Kleczek and Zorychta, 1993 X
Yi and Kaiser, 1993 X
Kaiser and Maloney, 1997 X
Arabasz et al. 1997 X

Amount of rock displaced and maximum magnitude

Classification of rockbursts according to the amount of rock they displaces and their
maximum magnitude or amplitude on a seismograph recording is used by Scott (1990) and
Scott et al. (1997). These authors define a seismic event as an arrival marked by a phase
change or amplitude build-up on a seismic record. Their definition of seismic events includes
microseismic events, rockbursts and earthquakes, and all of them can cause damage to
openings in rock. The scaling of events according to intensity from small to large can be seen
in Table 4-3.

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 Table 4-3 Classification according to damage caused by seismic event.

Author Amount of damage

Small seismic events Large seismic events
Scott, 1990
bumps knocks strain burst crush burst
Microseismic events Rockbursts
Scott et al., 1997
strain burst crush burst slip burst

According to these authors strain bursts are the cause of limited and localized damage, while
crush and slip bursts can cause extensive damage to drifts and stopes. Events exceeding 0.5
Richter magnitude, that displace more than 10 tons of rock into an opening, or have a peak
amplitude greater than 30 mm on a seismograph, are classified as large seismic events or
rockbursts. Microseismic or small seismic events are defined as events that displace less than
1 - 2 m3 of material into a mine opening, have a Richter magnitude less than 0.5, or result in
less than 30 mm displacement on a seismograph. These microseismic events generally occur
near drifts, haulage way or stopes, and cause popping, spitting (ejection of small rock
fragments) and spalling of the surrounding rock mass.

Distance from, or the location of the effect inside, the mine workings
Johnston and Einstein (1990), Knoll and Kuhnt (1990), Gaviglio et al. (1990), Krishnamurthy
and Shringarputale (1990), Bigarre et al. (1993), Vervoort and Moyson (1997) and Wong
(1992) all use the distance from the mining face or the location of the effect as a basis for their
classification of seismic events or rockbursts. The differences can be found in Table 4-4.
There is commonly one category “type 1” which is closely associated with active mining
faces. These events are a function of mining rate and are of low to medium magnitude. They
occur at or close to the mining face. The actual distance varies depending on author. The other
category “type 2” is only indirectly associated with mining activities, since it results from
regional stress redistribution caused by large working areas or whole mines. These are usually
located on a pre-existing zone of weakness or a geological discontinuity that can be located as
far away as 3 km. The coal industry has a slightly different approach – they treat pillar failure
as a separate group, called “Type 3” in Table 4-4. The pillars mentioned are stiff and become
overstressed because of the mining geometry.

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 Table 4-4 Classification of events according to distance from mining face.

Author Distance from mining face

Johnston and Einstein,
1990
Knoll and Kuhnt, 1990
Gaviglio et al., 1990
(coal)
Krishnamurthy and
Shringarputale, 1990
(coal)
Bigarre et al. 1993 (coal)
Vervoort and Moyson,
1997
Wong, 1992
Type 1, ≥ 100 m Type 2, ≥ 3 km
Type 1, close to mining Type 2: indirectly
face, no distance specified connected to mining
activities
Type 1: ≥ 30 m Type 2: ≥ 100 m Type 3: unmined pillars
overstressed because of
mining geometry
Type 1: at reef workings Type 2: in footwall Type 3: in old workings
openings, not close to the far from the face
face
Type 1: ends of faces Type 2: 50-150 m ahead Type 3: unmined pillars
of or behind face overstressed
Category 1: at excavations Category 2: further away
(strain bursts) from excavations, no
distance specified
Type 1: few tens of meters Type 2: near-vicinity to
from active workings several hundred meters

Relation to mining situation and stress level

Morrison and MacDonald (1990) and Hedley (1992) classify rockbursts based on their
relation to the mining situation and the stress level. They recognize that the fundamental
cause of all mining related seismic events is the same, i.e., the stress redistribution and
relaxation of rock around the excavations. They categorize their events as occurring in two or
three phases, see summary in Table 4-5.

Table 4-5 Classification according to mining stage.

Author
Development
Morrison and Phase 1 events: in
MacDonald, 1990 development drifts
Inherent bursts: in
Hedley, 1992
development openings
Mining stage
Extraction, active mining Mined out, whole mine
Phase 2 events: in or close Phase 3 events: some
to active orebody distance away
Induced bursts: in remaining structures (pillars)

Morrison and MacDonald’s phase 1 events occur in development drifts when the pre-mining
stresses are high enough to cause failure by relaxation of stored strain energy. Phase 2 events
occur in or close to the orebody in the abutments (or pillars) due to redistribution and
concentration of stresses caused by the mining operation. Phase 3 events occur some distance
out in the walls of an extensively mined orebody, and are the result of regional stress
redistributions caused by the whole mine. The mechanism is always fault-slip, and it is not the
event itself that damages mine openings, but rather the vibrations caused by the event.

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Hedley’s term for phase 2 and 3 events are induced bursts. Hedley also has a third type of
burst, fault slip, which can be either an inherent or induced burst, depending on the mining
stage at which it occurs.

Underlying mechanism causing seismic event

Brummer and Rorke (1990), Gill et al. (1993), Kleczek and Zorychta (1993), Yi and Kaiser
(1993), Kaiser and Maloney (1997) and Arabasz et al. (1997) all classify rockbursts based on
the underlying mechanism that caused the seismic event. There are two mechanisms causing
seismic events: instantaneous slip on an existing geological discontinuity (fault slip) or
instantaneous fracturing of highly stressed rock.

Table 4-6 Classification according to underlying mechanism.

Author Underlying mechanism

Brummer and Rorke, 1990 Sudden crushing or
fracturing of rock near
mining face
Gill et al., 1993 Type 2: failure of rock
mass itself, strain and
pillar bursts
Kleczek and Zorychta, Concentration of static
1993 stresses
Yi and Kaiser, 1993 Strain burst (mech II)
Kaiser and Maloney, 1997 Self-initiated (strain burst)
Arabasz et al., 1997 Static stresses near mine
openings
Sudden failure of rock in Shear-slip on geologic
pillar foundations discontinuity
Type1: fault slip
Action of dynamic load
created by mining tremors
Pillar burst (mech I+II) Fault slip (mech I)
Remotely triggered (fault
slip)
Dynamic effects from
seismic slip

These two mechanisms have commonly lead authors to define two classes of rockbursts. In
Table 4-6 rockbursts are grouped by using the type 1 and type 2 rockburst defined by Gill et
al. (1993). The type 1 bursts are those resulting from the dynamic loads imposed by fault-slip
events and the type 2 bursts result from failure of the rock mass itself. Sometimes there is a
third type defined, which is a combination of the two mechanisms, and is referred to as pillar
burst.

There are other authors using classifications of rockburst which do not fit into any of the
categories above. Petukhov (1990), for example, is the one who has found most classes of
rockbursts. He proposes five subgroups of rockbursts, that are differentiated by sound,
amount of dust dispersed, amount of shaking, location of damage in correlation to mining
stage and whether or not the mining operations are interrupted

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