Abstract
The paper presents the analysis of the phenomenon of horizontal displacement of surface induced by underground mining exploitation. In the initial part, the basic theories describing horizontal displacement are discussed, followed by three illustrative examples of underground exploitation in varied mining conditions. It is argued that center of gravity (COG) method presented in the paper, hypothesis of Awierszyn and model studies carried out in Strata Mechanics Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences indicate the proportionality between vectors of horizontal displacement and the vector of surface slope. The differences practically relate to the value of proportionality coefficient B, whose estimated values in currently realized design projects for mining industry range between 0.23r to 0.42r for deep exploitations, whereas in the present article the values of 0.33r and 0.47r were obtained for two instances of shallow exploitation. Furthermore, observations on changes of horizontal displacement vectors with face advancement indicated the possibility of existence of COG zones above the mined-out field, which proved the conclusions of hitherto carried out research studies (Tajduś 2013).