Electrical Resistivity Imaging technique to delineate coal seam barrier thickness and demarcate water filled voids |
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| Authors: | N S Krishnamurthy V Ananda Rao Dewashish Kumar K K K Singh Shakeel Ahmed |
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| Institution: | (1) National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, 500 606, India;(2) Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India;(3) Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, 826 001, India |
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| Abstract: | Exploration and exploitation of coal seams is one of the major resources for the energy sector in any country but at the same
time water filled voids/water logged areas in the old workings of these seams are very critical problems for the coal mining
industry. In such situations, disasters like inundation, landslides, collapsing of the old seams may occur. In this regard,
it is necessary to find out the water saturated/water filled voids and zones in the mining areas. Since no established technique
is available to find such zones, an experimental study using Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI) has been carried out in
one of the coal mining areas near Dhanbad, to find out the feasibility of finding the barrier thickness and the water logged
area in underground coal mines. The area under study forms part of Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad district, Jharkhand state.
The coal bearing rocks of Barakar Formation of Lower Permian age (Gondwana period) occur in the area under a thin cover (10
m to15 m) of soil and or alluvium. Coal bearing Barakar Formations consist mainly of sandstone of varying grain size, intercalation
of shale and sandstone, grey and carbonaceous-shale and coal seams.
Since the water saturation reduces the resistivity of a formation to a large extent, water filled voids and old coal workings
are expected to have significant resistivity contrast with the surrounding host rock. Hence, ERI technique was applied in
such an environment as this technique uses high-density data acquisition both laterally and vertically by using multiple number
of electrodes. Along with ERI, mise-à-la-masse (also called charged body) technique was also employed at one of the promising
sites to find out the connectivity of water logged areas and also detection of these old workings from the surface measurements
was analyzed. The interpreted 2D resistivity sections have clearly indicated the water bearing zone(s) along the profile which
was well confirmed with the existing water level in the nearby borewells. On the other hand, this technique did not identify
the size of the coal pillar and gallery (air filled voids), which might be due to the small size of the voids (i.e. about
2 m × 2 m) below a depth of 15m and more but have indicated altogether as a high resistive zone ranging from 600–1000 Ohm-m. |
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| Keywords: | Coal seams Water filled voids Electrical Resistivity Imaging Jharia coalfield Dhanbad Jharkhand |
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