Surface Seismic Investigations for the Determination of Water Flow Directions in Underground Melting of Sulphur Deposit

This paper shows the results of seismic research on some problems of sulphur in situ mining. Before the field measurements we constructed seismogeological model and calculated the synthetic seismograms. It is observed a good correlation between the state of the exploited deposit and quality of reflections on seismic records. The use of seismic method to determine the range of subsidence provoked by well mining of sulphur is presented. Comparison of the seismic sections before and during exploitation creates the possibility to determine the process of changing structure of the deposit and overburden strata and using this information for technological purposes. The water saturated zones are observed on seismic record as a zone without reflections and with decay of seismic energy. The information from few seismic profiles allows to construct the seismic map with situation of water saturated zones between damaged well and place with technological water on surface. Two examples of the seismic investigation conducted on the well mining of sulphur area are presented. Both are connected with the danger to main road on the surface caused by technological water uncontrolled flow.