ORTLEPP, W.D. Thoughts on the rockburst source mechanism based on observations of the mine-induced shear rupture.

Rockbursts and Seismicity in MinesRaSiM5, South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2001.

Thoughts on the rockburst source mechanism based on observations of the mine-induced shear rupture
W.D. ORTLEPP
SRK Consulting

In order to advance understanding of the fundamental mechanism of origin of a rockburst, a deliberate search was made for a pristine shear rupture. Photographic, petrological and mineralogical studies were made of a typical stope-induced shear rupture and its associated gouge material from a deep mine in the West Witwatersrand gold field. Most of the diagnostic features on the macro scale were found to be virtually identical to those which had been described during a similar exercise carried out 25 years previously on another mine in the Central Witwatersrand. From further close similarities visible on the microscopic and sub-microscopic scale it became apparent that the shear rupture had been driven through an intact, completely undamaged rock material in both instances. From this and other evidence it could confidently be inferred that the origin of the rupture was some distance from the plane of the excavation and that the fracture front propagated towards the stope horizon.

Introduction
After a half-century of formal research into the rockburst problem, understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of the more severe expressions of the phenomenon is still inadequate. Some of the major gaps in knowledge are discussed briefly. Most importantly, from the point of view of the practical mine engineer, the lack of proper insight into the mechanism of damage prevents reliable estimation of the strong parameters of ground motion that the tunnel and stope support must be able to withstand and control. Knowledge of the source mechanism is also a necessary pre-requisite for gaining understanding of the damage processes. Much of what is presently understood in regard to mechanisms of rockbursts has been gained from earthquake theory. It is firmly accepted by several earthquake researchers e.g.: McGarr et al. (1979) Segal and Pollard (1980) and Sibson (1985), that a close similarity exists in the mechanics and physics of the two phenomena. They used some of the features revealed in studies of rockburst ruptures on a Central Witwatersrand gold mine by Gay and Ortlepp (1979) to support and substantiate their work on the mechanics of crustal faulting. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that there are also similarities in some of the major fundamental problems and paradoxes confronting researchers in the two disciplines. However, it is important to realise that much of the basis for earthquake knowledge is also necessarily simplified and partly or largely conjectural. This is unavoidably so because the origin of even the shallowest earthquakes is too deep to permit direct observation by drilling or tunnelling. In deep mines, on the other hand, it is sometimes possible to observe directly the movement that results from the violent re-activation of an existing fault or to explore the fresh surfaces of a pristine rupture driven through hundreds or a

few thousands of square metres of a previously intact rock mass. Slipping on existing faults and the sudden creation of a shear rupture are the two modes of violent unstable failure that are the source of the larger seismic events which, under certain circumstances, are the immediate cause of major rockbursts. Little is known about the mechanisms of initiation and slips at the origin of these shear failures just as the details of exactly how an earthquake starts remain a mystery. The circumstances that determine the extent or severity of the resulting rockburst damage in mine excavations are also insufficiently understood. A review of the more recent rockburst research in South Africa will show that most effort has gone into seismological studies and numerical-modelling analyses of layout strategies. A lesser amount of work has been done on laboratory-based fracture studies and post-facto examination of scenes of rockburst damage. Apart from a cursory examination of rejuvenated movement on major faults by van Aswegen (1990) no direct study of a rockburst source has been done. In 1998 the Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee (SIMRAC) funded a low-key research project that aimed at locating and studying the pristine shear rupture that was believed to be one of two source mechanisms that cause most major mine rockbursts. It was hoped that direct and detailed observation of the source of a damaging seismic event would lead to useful understanding of the physics of the rupture process. The scope of the research carried out in this project was restricted to that type of the double-couple or shear-displacement class of major seismic events which involves the fresh development of an extensive shear rupture through a previously intact rock mass. The expectation was that this understanding would lead to improved ability to make reliable estimates of the damaging ground motion parameters.

The results of this study are described briefly in this paper. The paper also gives a preliminary glimpse of some of the results from another set of studies carried out quite separately on the same mine by the C.S.I.R Miningtek, details of which are deserving of more comprehensive treatment than is possible at this time. This latter work, in a remarkably fortuitous and serendipitous way, revealed some minute but spectacular microfeatures that appear to have a similar origin to microparticles discovered in the earlier studies of shear ruptures 25 years ago. Both testify to extraordinarily violent phenomena occurring at a very small scale on the rockburst rupture surface. It is suggested that the extreme stress fluctuations that characterize the sub-micro environment have their macro counterparts on the real-life scale. These may help explain the large variability in damage intensity and the localization and directionality frequently observed in severe rockbursts. Finally the suggestion is made that it is worthwhile to consider again the potential synergies that might exist between studies into rockburst and earthquake source mechanisms. Research into large-scale rock fracturing processes in the natural laboratory provided by a seismically-active deep mine can only be of great benefit to both earth physics and deep-level mining rock mechanics.

Important areas of uncertainty

It is considered helpful to categorize the main unknowns in the study of rockbursts into two main areas, i.e., those pertaining to the source mechanisms and those pertaining to the mechanisms of damage. Modern seismic monitoring networks usually provide a reasonable estimate of the magnitude of seismic events and the location of their origins. However, the damage resulting from these events is often puzzling in the way that its extent and intensity usually cannot be explained simply on the basis of the two parameters of size and location. The main characteristics of damage are that it is often: indicative of very strong ground motion at the

excavation surface, particularly in the way of high velocities of ejection of rock slabs and fragments that cannot be explained by simple seismological theory strongly directional or non-symmetrical, particularly in tunnels extremely variable with locally intense damage alternating with areas of negligible to undetectable damage. Sometimes a ready explanation for focused damage is provided by the local geology, usually the presence of a fault or dyke, but frequently no reason is apparent. Subject to the validity of necessary simplifying assumptions, analyses of the wave forms of the seismic signals can yield much additional information regarding the mechanisms involved at the origin. Accepting that such source mechanism models are necessarily very simplified and conjectural, they would nevertheless be very useful if they were based on acceptably realistic assumptions. Direct observation of the shear surfaces at the origin would help assess the validity and realism of the underlying premises. In the context of major mine-induced seismic events it would be very valuable if further insight into the following particular aspects could be obtained. Is the assumption of an approximately planar, circular area of slip (as postulated in the Brune model) appropriate for the simple case of a single burst rupture or for movement on a single fault surface? How uniform is the amount of dislocation across such a shear surface? How large is the area of slip? If significantly non-uniform, are there identifiable features such as jogs or asperities on the fault/rupture surface that could cause high stress drop? Such impact asperities might cause pulses of much stronger ground motion that could account for localized intense damage. Rock bursts have been observed to incur stress drop two orders of magnitude higher than crustal earthquakes. Is rupture dislocation continuous along the source area, or can patches remain locked to form asperities that can become re-activated at a later stage? Does a shear rupture through geologically uncomplicated rock require a prepared path such as a concentrated alignment of pre-existing microscopic extension fractures, before it can propagate itself and permit shear dislocation? Is the direction of slip constant along the rupture surface and is it consistent with expectation based on theoretical stress distribution? There is no doubt that many other aspects of the problem could be identified. It is also self-evident that pointers or clues to only some of these questions might emerge, mainly those where a detailed direct examination of the actual sheared surfaces might reveal new insights.

Overview of previous studies

There is a vast amount of literature available concerning the mechanics of fracture in the Earths crust which aims to gain understanding of the earthquake process and which might therefore have some relevance to the study of rockburst mechanisms. The reference list in Sammis et al (1986) provides an indication of the development of this body of information. Studies which have closer links with the rockburst problem and which in many cases actually make use of observations from South African gold mines include those of McGarr et al. (1979), Olgaard and Brace (1983) Segal and Pollard (1980) and Sibson (1985) (1986).

50 m

Photograph 1.

The observations used by some of these researchers came almost directly from an extensive study of a rockburst rupture which was carried out on East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) from 1974 to 1975. This work is best described in papers by Gay and Ortlepp (1979), Ortlepp (1992) and Ortlepp (2000). The study essentially involved exploration of the nature and extent of two fresh shear ruptures traversing through the rock mass, by developing a total of 90 m of boxholes and small raises along the fracture traces. These burst fractures had occurred some five years previously ahead of the faces of a longwall stope which was mining out an inclined shaft pillar in an unusually uncomplicated geological setting at a depth of 2050 m below surfaceSee Figure 1(a). The follow-behind footwall drive, from which the raising was commenced, revealed at least 20 traces of fractures of similar appearance and attitude along the 350 m strike length of the shaft pillar. Although there was no seismic location network in the area it was possible, by interpretation of the records from the WWSSN station at Pretoria, to associate the two explored fracturesFigure 1bwith damaging rockbursts that had occurred in September 1970. The macro appearance was captured by more than 250 photographs. Samples of the fault gauge and adjoining wall rock enabled the micro-structure to be studied by thinsection microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). One of the SEM photographs showed features of extraordinary symmetry on which certain conclusions and conjectures have been based - see Photograph 1. The main visual identifying characteristics of these rockburst ruptures are shown in photographs 2 and 3.
Figure 1(a). Plan of remnant showing the location of observed shear ruptures and the face positions at the time of the reported rockbursts. The remnant is essentially an island of un-mined, tabular ore inclined southward at 38, surrounded by a sea of mined-out ground (cross-hatched) which extends hundreds of metres in all directions

Figure 1(b). Isometric projection of fractures A and B beneath the plane of the orebody with the location accurately fixed by surveyed points in the raises. The monthly stope face positions are shown by the broken lines on the stope plane

Photograph 2.

Photograph 3.

It is important to note that, although the surrounding rock mass was completely free from geological faults (and even joints were extremely rare in this particular instance) there is no reason to believe that the shear ruptures were features unique to this area. Burst fractures had also been observed on several other mines including the old central Witwatersrand mines of City Deep and Crown Mines; Blyvooruitzicht and Western Deep Levels in the Far West Rand and Hartbeesfontein in the Klerksdorp district.

To some extent the thrust of the research was determined by the exploration of the two major ruptures that was undertaken in 1974 on ERPM. This early study is probably the only deliberate exercise ever undertaken anywhere to explore the source region of a significant seismic event and it remains unique in respect of the extent of exposure of the shear surfaces and the number of detailed descriptive photographs taken of its morphology, textures and displacements. It is a matter of regret that no diagnostic work was done at the time on the geochemistry of the comminuted gouge material and too little electron microscopy was undertaken. It nevertheless remains the definitive study of the source of a seismic event. The present SIMRAC study is, in effect, a confirmation and an extension of this earlier research effort. A necessary part of the new project was the involvement of scientists able to provide the profound insights into the fundamental geophysics, geochemistry and micro-structural aspects that were lacking in the earlier work. Contact was made with the Department of Geology, University of Witwatersrand where the definitive studies were directed, performed and analysed. Contacts were also established with the Department of Geology at the Los Angeles campus of the University of California. The types of analyses carried out, included the following: Petrographic studiesoptical microscope and SEM imaging of the rock material and the fracture distribution Mineralogic studies X-ray diffraction (XRD) X-ray fluorescence (XRF) SEM studies of fault gouge. A more complete account of these results is given in Reimold et al. (2000). The XRD analyses were particularly directed towards establishing whether it was possible that the very intense pressure and temperature changes on the shear surface might have resulted in a phase transformation of the quartz into coesite. Had this occurred, highly specialized fundamental physics insights would have been available in the person of Professor Didier Sornette of Nice University, France and University of California, Los Angeles. The results of the XRD showed that there was no trace of coesite present in the samples.

Research strategy and method

For several reasons a shear rupture driven through intact rock may be expected to be the simplest form of a sheartype rockburst source. This is true at least in respect of its likely shape and extent even though the seismic signature may be complicated and its interpretation difficult or impossible. Rejuvenated movement on geological faults is probably the more frequent source mechanism for major seismicity but such features are very seldom freshly exposed by routine stoping or development shortly after the movement has occurred. The SIMRAC project was therefore restricted from the outset to a search for rockburst ruptures not associated with geological faults. Since deep mining had ceased in the central Witwatersrand area, the target mines requested to assist in the search for recent exposures were in the Far West Rand and Klerksdorp districts. In September 1998, a significant suite of three burst ruptures was identified in the # 6 panel of the 50E line of 87 level Western Deep Levels South mine, now known as Mponeng. Visits were made on several occasions in order to photograph, study and sample these features.

Location of rockburst ruptures

The 87-50 E6 panel where the burst ruptures were exposed is shown in Figure 2 as it appeared in September 1998. The depth of the remnant tip was 2555 m below surface. The orebody was the Ventersdorp Contact Reef, which occurs along the non-conformable paleo-erosion surface between quartzites of the group and the lavas above. Figure 3 shows the locations of 30 events greater than ML= 1.5 which had occurred in the previous 19 months in the vicinity and whose seismograms had been captured by the ISSI seismic system which provided detailed coverage of the mine. Of these located events, the two numbered 20 and 30 on Figure 3 were considered to be the most likely to have been associated with the rupture surfaces that were studied. The elevations of the origins were about 18 m below and 16 m above the reef plane, and their magnitudes were ML= 1.7 and 1.6 respectively. The apparent stress and the energy index are parameters which are believed to be related to the suddenness or violence of the slip movementref. Mendecki (1997). The respective values were 90 kPa and 1.3 for event 20 and

the diagnostic hackle surface of the shear-rupture. There had been no reports of rockburst damage during the previous few months of stoping in the upper panels of the remnant. The damaged hangingwall of the stope made continued breast advance of the panel unduly hazardous and it was decided that the safest way of extracting the remaining portion of the remnant was by advancing a strike face in a down-dip direction. This decision was fortunate since it enabled several visits to be made to the main exposure and additional observations to be carried out in the centre remnant. Figure 2 shows the position of the down-dip face at two monthly intervals thereafter. There four dip-aligned, steeply eastward-dipping fractures with small dip-slip displacements and minor comminution were observed and photographed on each occasion. None of these features were nearly as welldefined or dramatic as rupture traces 1, 2 or 3.

Description of main ruptures

The three main rupture surfaces each clearly showed the features which are quite peculiar to rockburst ruptures or burst fractures. These definitive characteristics are: very finely comminuted rock flour on an obviously freshly-sheared surface a relatively extensive, near perfectly planar surface with a strongly textured lineated appearance like a greatly enlarged, sharp-edged metal-working single-cut file. This has been described as a hackled surface in the earlier work and is probably the most definitively diagnostic feature of a rock burst rupture a shear displacement or off-set of several centimetres in a dip-slip normal sense pinnate micro-joints or subsidiary extension fractures extending away from the surface of shear movement as little as a few millimetres to as much as several centimetres it is the intersection of the micro-pinnate joints with the shear surface that causes the hackled surface the angle between these secondary extension features and the main shear surface is always acute and it always points in the direction of relative motion of the shear movement. All of these features had been observed, often more dramatically expressed, in other burst fractures that have been examined at ERPM, City Deep and Blyvooruitzicht. The macro appearance of the diagnostic features listed above is best conveyed by photographs 4 and 5. An ultra-close view of a polished section cut perpendicularly to the shear surface in the direction of the dip-slip movement is shown in photograph 6. At this scale it appears that there is no clustering or shear-banding of grain-sized micro-cracks that would prepare a weaker preferred path for the shear rupture to follow. This view was further reinforced by thin section studies which showed a total lack of intra-granular micro-cracks except in the immediate vicinity of the small pinnate jointsphotograph 7. The importance of these observations is that they preclude the existence of, or the need for, a pre-existing fabric of localized and concentrated micro-fractures that softens or pre-conditions the stressed rock to provide a path for the eventual shear rupture. This contradicts the hypothesis advanced by many previous researchers that the shearing is the final stage in a progressive breakdown of the rock fabric. According to this view the rupture that permits

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

800 kPa and 12.1 for event 30. The latter two values would suggest that event 30 was more likely to have been the responsible event. The inferred radius of 33 m for the theoretical slip surface also seems to fit better with the subsequent observations than the 105 m inferred for event 20. The traces of the shear ruptures that were discovered in mid-September 1998 are shown in Figure 2. The shear surfaces were displayed most prominently in the quartzite footwall parallel to the stope face. Above the footwall traces the blocky lava hangingwall was conspicuously more intensely fractured than elsewhere but without displaying

Photograph 4.

Photograph 7. Photograph 5.

the displacement along the length of the shear surface, represents the last step in a drawn-out process. The alternative explanation which is confidently proposed here, is that the shear rupture originated at some critical point remote from the stope and explosively propagated through an unfractured rock mass towards the stope. The comminuted rock flour and hackly surfaces develop as a result of intense frictional effects on the walls of the shear rupture as they move into their preferred more relaxed positions. The pinnate joints and the micro-joints or feather fractures are all secondary effects and the shear rupture itself is the initial explosive expression of massive failure in the semi-infinite rock space.

Synthesis and discussions

More dramatic testimony to the violence of these shear ruptures is provided by the three rather cursory studies which were carried out by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) quite independently of each other on samples taken on two different mines over a considerable time period. The first of these studies was carried out by Dr N.C. Gay and first reported by Gay and Ortlepp (1979). The most characteristic feature of the very finely comminuted rock flour that made up the shear surfaces was its sharp splintery nature. Occasionally clusters of minute fragments were remarkably uniformly-sized, equi-dimensional and

Photograph 6.

rather regularly polyhedral in shape. The close resemblance to rhombic dodecaheda displayed by the minute subparticles of photograph 1 prompted the explanation by Ortlepp (1997) that they were formed from a portion of a quartz grain that had exploded as a result of dynamic shock re-bound. In the work described in this paper only a few SEM photographs were produced from samples that had been ultrasonically cleaned and washed primarily for the X-ray diffraction testing for coesite. Probably as a result of this preparation treatment, no clusters of equi-dimensional subparticles were observed. However, the thin-section micrograph of quartz grains shown in photograph 8 displays a mosaic of micro-cracks which give the appearance that the grains close to and along the edge of the sheared surface had shattered into many near equidimensional sub-particles. The size of the sub-particles appears to range from about 30 m to 80 m which is similar to the size of those in photograph 1. In the third instance, samples of gouge material from a shear zone on 84 level on the 6 1 raise line on the Mponeng mine were examined by M. Grodner of CSIR Miningtek in December 1995. The shear surface was described as a steeply dipping surface parallel to the stope face direction

in the hard lava hangingwall. It was associated with a Richter magnitude 2.0 seismic event. An SEM photograph of a finely comminuted gouge sample taken from this shear surface revealed a minute particle of one micron in size and almost spherical in shape photograph 9. The contrast between this near-perfect sphere and the sharp-edged, plate-like to splintery submicroscopic fragments that constitute typical fault gouge was dramatic. However, even that sharp distinction dulled when the round particle of photograph 9 was compared to the vivid perfection of the sphere that appeared in another SEM micrograph in Grodners collectionphotograph 10. This photograph had been given to him a year or two previously by Dr N.C. Gay who was the first co-author of the paper describing the nature of the shear rupture originally explored on ERPM in 1974Gay and Ortlepp (1979). Sadly this remarkable photograph was not annotated and all attempts to elucidate its exact origin or context have not been successful. Its appearance prompted the author of this paper to reexamine carefully the contents of a folder given to him by Dr N.C. Gay several years before. This contained an assortment of SEM photographs and some copy negatives of the various SEM and microscopic studies published in their joint paper of 1979. Only a few pieces of the collection were annotated, identifying the SEM studies as all being of samples of gouge taken from different places on deep mines, mostly ERPM. There was no trace of the perfect sphere of photograph 10 in the collection. Importantly, however, one 36 frame contact sheet of 35mm film of SEM images showed 5 different frames in which microspheres are discernible. One of these (frame # 31) has 6 minute spheres nested in a bed of typically angular gauge particles photograph 11. Another frame (# 38) shows a sphere with much smaller spheroids seemingly adhering to it in the same manner as is so clearly visible in photograph 10, or clustered into a tiny pyramid of sub-spheres at a single place on its surface photograph 12. Another frame (# 3) reveals a tight cluster of larger angular particles that have some of the features of

Photograph 8.

Photograph 9.

Photograph 10.

Photograph 11.

Photograph 13.

all in a few milliseconds of time. Moore and Sibson (1978) have shown experimentally that there is sufficiently high transient power dissipation on the fault surface during moderate to large shallow earthquakes that it is inevitable that thermal cracking and localized melting of rock minerals will occur. As was suggested by Ortlepp (1997), when speculating on the origin of the rhombic dodecahedra, it is likely that sudden slips along a non-smooth surface will cause violent compressive impacts as micro-asperities collide. These collisions could be followed instantaneously by extreme rarefractions, creating localized vacuums, as the micro asperities, over-ride each other and the micro-hollows coincide. Occurring on a sufficiently small scale, these phenomena would certainly be accompanied by transient power dissipation which would be as intense locally as those imposed by Moore and Sibson. Thus, it seems totally plausible that melting of silica and subsequent vapourization would occur during collision of strong asperities. The resultant vapour would condense into minute droplets and immediately congeal in the vacuum that directly followed the slamming impact of the asperity collision.
Photograph 12.

Concluding thought
Enough evidence has been collected during study of these three burst fractures to establish indisputably that the shear rupture or rockburst fracture is the fossil imprint of one of the two possible source mechanisms of major rockbursts. It appears likely that the fracture erupts spontaneously when the deviatoric stress state at a point some distance out of the plane of the stoping excavations and usually ahead of the face, exceeds some critical value. The fracture front propagates with near-explosive rapidity along a pristine path towards the stope face or abutment edge nearest to the original point of instability. It does not require a localization of clusters of extension micro-fractures to prepare a path for the shear displacement to follow. This mode of rock failure is essentially a faulting process,

a rhombic dodecahedronphotograph 13. Although there is again a regrettable lack of adequate annotation, there is convincing evidence that minute nearperfect to perfect spheres occur occasionally in the ultrafine gouge material of shear ruptures in quartzite. Indeed they appear to be more frequent than the dodecahedral shaped sub-particles. The suggestion has been made by the discoverer of the first of these spherical particles, Mark Grodner of CSIR, Miningtek, that these are the preserved evidence of an extraordinary micro-phenomenon that entails some relatively low melting-point silicate mineral melting, vaporizing, condensing into minute droplets and freezing

probably similar in most essentials to the initiation of natural faults at shallow depth in the Earths crust. It differs from natural faults only in the scale of its physical and energy dimensions which are smaller by two or three orders of magnitude. Deep mining occasionally and accidentally exposes the burst fracture or shear rupture of large seismic events that had occurred some time previously. This makes them accessible for close examination in a way that is likely never to be possible for earthquake-sized faults. It is entirely possible that the various phenomena of extreme violence observed on a microscopic and submicroscopic scale on these shear features might also occur on crustal-scale faults. The postulated mode of origin of the recently-revealed micro-spheres supplements and supports the concept derived from earlier study of the rhombic dodecahedra. This notion simply postulates that the fracture process which is the source mechanism of mine rockbursts is characterized by extreme inhomogeneity and violence. If the violence of these micro-processes persists at larger scales of metres and tens of metres, it becomes much easier for one to accept, conceptually, if not to entirely understand, the extremes of damage that is often observed in large rockbursts.

Acknowledgements
The permission given by SIMPROSS for the use of results and photographs of SIMRAC GAP 524 is gratefully acknowledged. Sincere gratitude is expressed to Mponeng Mine and its staff, particularly Louis de Klerk who discovered the ruptures. Richard Stewart is thanked for contributing data and photographs, and Professors Uwe Reimold and Didier Sornette for stimulating discussions. The contribution by Mark Grodner who first suggested vapourization and condensation as the origin of the micro-spheres and permitted the use of his unique SEM micrographs, is regarded as of inestimable value and is acknowledged with gratitude.

References
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