Noise correction and integration of HR-GNSS and seismological data for small earthquakes

<p>High-rate GNSS (HR-GNSS) observations are used for high-precision applications, where the point position changes in short intervals are required, such as earthquake analysis or structural health monitoring. We aim to apply the HR-GNSS observations into mining tremors monitoring, where the dynamic displacement amplitudes reach maximally dozens of millimetres. The study contains the analysis of several mining tremors of magnitudes 3-4 in Poland, recorded within the EPOS-PL project.</p><p>The HR-GNSS position is obtained with over 1 Hz frequency in kinematic mode with relative or absolute approaches. For short periods (up to several minutes), the positioning accuracy is very high, but the displacement time series suffer from low-frequency fluctuations. Therefore, it is not possible to apply them directly in the analysis of seismic phenomena, thus it is necessary to filter out low- and high-frequency noise.</p><p>In this study, we discussed some methods that are useful to reduce the noise in HR-GNSS displacement time series to obtain precise and physically correct results with reference to seismological observations, which for dynamic position changes are an order of magnitude more accurate. We presented the band-pass filtering application with automatic filtration limits based on occupied bandwidth detection and the discrete wavelet transform application with multiresolution analysis. The correction of noise increases the correlation coefficient by over 40%, reaching values over 0.8. Moreover, we tested the application of the basic Kalman filter to the integration of sensors: HR-GNSS and an accelerometer to visualize the most actual displacements of the station during a small earthquake - a mining tremor. The usefulness of this algorithm for the assumed purpose was confirmed. This algorithm allows to reduce the noise from HR-GNSS results, and on the other hand, to minimize the potential seismograph drift and its errors caused by the limited dynamic range of the seismograph. An unquestionable advantage is the possibility of obtaining a time series of displacements with a high frequency (equal to the frequency of seismograph observations, e.g. 250 Hz) showing the full range of station motion: dynamic and static displacements caused by an earthquake.</p>

Land Surface Subsidence Due to Mining-Induced Tremors in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland)—Case Study

Seismic phenomena threaten land-based buildings, structures, and infrastructure and can transform land topography. There are two basic types of seismic phenomena, namely, tectonic and anthropogenic, which differ mainly in epicenter depth, surface impact range, and magnitude (energy). This article shows how a land surface was changed by a series of seven rock mass tremors of magnitude ML = 2.3–2.6 in March–May 2017. Their immediate cause was the “momentary” acceleration of void clamping, which was activated by local and short-term seismic phenomena caused by human activity. The induced seismic events resulted from the geological structure of the rock mass, which in the specific region of examination was classified as being highly prone to mining tremors. The authors focused on describing vertical surface displacements in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in the south of Poland. The surface deformations were identified using DInSAR technology, which allows quasi-continuous monitoring of large areas of land surface. The present research used freely available data from the Copernicus Program and seismic data from the European Plate Observing System.

The influence of distant coal seam edges on seismic hazard during longwall mining

Underground coal seam mining has been carried out in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland, for many years and with a simultaneous increase in exploitation depth. Frequently, coal seams are not fully extracted due to numerous reasons which lead to their edges and remnants remaining in the rock mass. Even in the case of the full extraction of a coal seam, mining usually ends at the border of a protecting pillar to protect underground or surface objects, sometimes at the border of the mining area, or some distance from the old goaf or high throw fault. Extraction of subsequent coal seams in an analogous range results in a cluster of coal seam edges remaining. In the vicinity of the mentioned remainders, the disrupted stress distribution is expected. The infraction of the aforementioned equilibrium repeatedly results in the occurrence of strong mining tremors. The observations from the studied coal seam no. 408’s longwall panel indicated that mining works are able to disturb the present stress-strain equilibrium in the area of the edges of other coal seams, even if they are located at a greater vertical distance away. The seismological parameters and distributions have been applied for this purpose.

High-rate GNSS positioning for tracing anthropogenic seismic activity

<p>High-rate GNSS observations are usually related to earthquake analysis and structural monitoring. The sampling frequency is in the range of 1-100 Hz and observations are processed in the kinematic mode. Most of the research on short-term dynamic deformations is limited to natural earthquakes with magnitudes exceeding 5 and amplitudes of at least several centimetres up to even meters. The high frequency GNSS stations positions monitoring is particularly important on mining areas due to the mining damages. On the underground mining areas the seismic tremors are regular and there are several hundreds of events annually of magnitude over 2 with maximum magnitudes of 4. As mining tremors are shallow and very frequent, they cause mining damages on infrastructure.</p><p>Here, we presented the application of GNSS-seismology to the analysis of anthropogenic seismic activity, where the event magnitude and amplitude of displacements significantly lower. We examined the capacity to detect mining tremors with high-rate GPS observations and demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge that even subcentimeter ground vibrations caused by anthropogenic activity can be measured this way with a very good agreement with seismological data. One of the most-felt mining shocks in Poland in recent years occurred on January 29, 2019 (12:53:44 UTC) M3.7 event in the area of Legnica-Głogów Copper District and was successfully registered by high-rate GNSS stations co-located with seismic stations. In this mining tremor the peak ground displacements reached 2-16  mm and show the Pearson’s correlation value in range of 0.61 to 0.94 for band-pass filtered horizontal displacements.</p>

The ratio of response spectra from seismic-type free-field and building foundation vibrations: the influence of rockburst parameters and simple models of kinematic soil-structure interaction

Mining-related seismicity is a significant problem in regions with the exploitation in underground mines. Despite the fact that mining tremors result from human activity and are classified as so-called paraseismic shocks, as with earthquakes, they are random events. Moreover, these rockbursts could cause significant damage to surface structures, including buildings. This paper deals with the analysis of experimentally obtained results in terms of the differences between the mine-induced vibrations described by the response spectra from the free-field near a given building and the simultaneously recorded vibrations in the building foundations. The influences of epicentral distance, mining tremor energy and the value of peak ground acceleration on the curves of free-field—foundation response spectra ratio were studied. The impact of the type of building on the transmission of response spectra from the free-field vibrations to the building foundations was also analysed for three types of apartment buildings (low-rise, medium-rise, high-rise). The usefulness of the approximate models of the phenomenon of soil-structure interaction during earthquakes proposed in the literature is also estimated in this paper in specific instances of mining tremors. Furthermore, the study presents original, simple, empirical models for the evaluation of the differences in the response spectra originating from free-field and building foundation vibrations in the mining region.