Mine shafts

The usual method for disposing of pesticides in the USSR was walling them into spent quarries and mine shafts. For example, more than 3000 tons of pesticides were walled into unfitted vertical boreholes in the Krasnodar Krai. The complete destruction of pesticides has become a large environmental problem, comparable in scale to the problem of destroying chemical weapons stocks. About 40,000 tons of unused pesticides (banned or too old to be used) had accumulated in the countries of the former Soviet Union, about half of which are located in Russia. 

Radon constitutes a serious problem because, being a heavy gas, it collects in such places as basements and mine shafts. When inhaled, radon decays in areas where little penetration is require to cause tissue damage. Radiation from a and (3 decay is not of a highly penetrating type, but inside the lungs it does not have to be in order to still cause damage. Table 15.10 shows several properties of the noble gases. 

Del Rio s paper on the best method of sinking mine shafts was printed for use in all the mines of Mexico, and his article on the relations between the composition of a mineral and the materials of which the vein is composed was published in the supplement to the Gaceta de Mexico on January 18, 1797 (1,3). 

Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, which results in it blanketing the floor within mine voids. This tendency needs to be taken into account in planning mine safety, as breathable air above a mantle of 02 deficient air can give a false sense of security where a sloping mine roadway is being travelled. Blankets of 02-deficient air can also hug the ground surface around abandoned mine shafts and adit portals, and this should be borne in mind when planning fieldwork in the vicinity of such features. 

Open-loop systems. Groundwater is pumped from a borehole (or mine shaft) and circulated directly through the heat pump, which extracts heat directly from the water. This method is obviously appropriate where a significant water yield, with a suitable quality, can be achieved and maintained. 

Fortuitously, the Festsalen is located near the flooded main mine shaft, at the base of which temperatures are believed to be as high as 16.4 °C. A proposal for an open-loop heat... 

These samples are particularly valuable for this study since the area is undoubtedly the source of much of the lead used in early times. It is not known exactly when mining first began there, but it was probably before 1000 B.C. Marinos and Petrascheck (8) have described the geology of the region, the nature of the ore deposits, and the history of mining at Laurion. According to them, the most important period of exploitation was from 483 B.C. onward, when the deposits at present day Kamarisa were discovered. They state that there are today more than 1000 ancient mine shafts and galleries, some of which are more... 

MCS patients are sometimes called canaries, because MCS patients can function as early warning signals. Early miners would take canaries down into the mine shafts because canaries fell from their perches rather quickly when carbon monoxide or other dangerous gases arose. Miners made sure they got out as soon as this happened. MCS patients are thus actually the canaries of this day and age, since they become ill from chemical substances in low doses, especially synthetic chemical substances, from which others do not (yet) get sick. They therefore also function as an alarm bell, although this bell is not heard as it should be. 

As the exploration of the biosphere has continued, environments on Earth have been discovered that are quite different from and alien to human-like life. Nevertheless, where an environment has been found to contain a chemical disequilibrium, if liquid water is also present and the temperature does not exceed the upper limit for covalent bonding of core biomolecules, life is present. Active life has been found in deep-ocean thermal vents at temperatures in excess of 112°C. Life has been found in Antarctica where liquid water exists only transiently. It has been found 5 km below Earth s surface in mine shafts, and in the effluents of mining operations at Rio Tinto, Spain, that are as acidic as dilute sulfuric acid. Several of those environments are summarized in Table 3.1. 

Pittston, Pennsylvania Chlorinated solvents, HCN, and heavy metals Millions of gallons of waste dumped into abandoned mine shafts Food chain and waterborne exposure... 

Property not included in any other class, books, china, cutlery, kitchenware, die, jip, pattern, mould, medical and dental equipment, mine shaft, linen, cutting or shaping part of a machine, video tapes, movies, computer, software and videotape cassette... 

Fig. 19.5. Three types of entrances to underground mines—shaft, slope, and drift. (Courtesy Bureau of Mines.)...

Feedlots are sited close to existing water supply wells and rivers used for water supply (these pose a greater threat than facilities located at a distance from water supplies). Feedlots are located next to sinkholes, abandoned mine shafts, abandoned wells or other features that allow drainage direct access to the water table. 

Water pumped from abandoned mine shafts and open-cut pits is often used for water supply. However, these water sources may sometimes be contaminated by mineral processing chemicals, acid mine drainage (AMD) and waste disposal. These risks must be considered and assessed to determine whether such water sources are safe to be used for drinking-water supply,... 

Abandoned pits and mine shafts are commonly used for water supply after mine closure. Depending on the type of mining activity, water from these sources could pose a risk to human health from high dissolved metal or cyanide concentrations. 

Water from abandoned mine shafts and pits is being used as a source of drinking-water. Effluent discharge... 

Basalt-granite Washington, Utah (Mice, Mine Shaft) 0.20... 

Cytomegalovirus glycoprotein, 883aa 11.2mg/g seed TSP, 1.07% seed protein Tobacco seeds [10] Human gene, plants grown in mine shaft... 

The origin of deep acid mine waters. Barnes et al. (1964) studied waters in three flooded coal-mine shafts in the north anthracite field of eastern Pennsylvania. Samples were obtained from depths up to 646 ft (197 m) below the water table. In the shaft pools Barnes et al. (1964) obtained the following compositional ranges pH 3.4 to 5.4, Eh -0.10 to +0.57 V, ZSOl" 1260 to 6720 mg/kg, and SFe(II)(aq) 34 to 1463 mg/kg. Seven of their chemical analyses are reproduced in Table 12.6. Highest iron and sulfate concentrations were found at the greatest depths. Eh and pH values were less depth predictable. All of their Eh-pH data are listed in Table 12.6 and plotted in Fig. 12.23, which shows that several of the analyses lie at or below the Fe(II)(aq)/pyrite boundary, suggesting equilibrium with pyrite. 

TABLE 12.6 Chemical analyses of waters from some flooded anthracite mine shafts... 

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