I know that coal mining is bad for your lungs: do many other types of mines produce a lot of dust? It doesn't have to be a kind that causes serious disease, just enough to cause congestion and make you cough. I would think this would be quite common, but I don't know for sure.
The other question has to do with the possible proximity of mines to caves. What types of ore might be found close to natural caverns? Or is it something that's pretty unlikely in general? If the latter, is it so unlikely that it would strain belief?
posted
Yes, all mines produce a lot of dust. The type of ore doesn't really matter. Sure, other mines won't give you "black lung" like coal, but as far as respiratory problems, it can be anything you like.
Caves used to be (and still can be) prime places to mine. Layers of ore can be easily distinguished inside a cavern, so prospecting is a lot easier than drill sampling. And you don't have to start the dig, you use the natural cavern to get to the start of the ore deposit and dig back from there.
Open pit mining might be good. That produces a TON of dust. Sometimes if there's a particularly large deposit of ore (which can be found in a cavern) the entire mountain will be stripped. Look at websites about Kennecott copper mine in Utah. It's the largest open pit in the world.
Yeah, so you'll find a lot of dust in any mine. Just from the ground/crushed rock. Sometimes water blasters will clear it, but there's only so much they can do. Especially dealing with the deep inner tunnels. Plus, somebody's got to go in first. You can also have underground intersecting caverns that wouldn't naturally reach the surface. With big MRI machines and depth-charge sonar, prospecters can find these caverns and drill to meet them.
Another possiblility if you want health problems, a lot of places still manually mine Uranium (eastern Utah and others).
[This message has been edited by JBShearer (edited September 14, 2004).]
posted
I don't think there is any problem with having a cave near a mine. Isn't there a story about the 'Lost Dutchman" mine where there was a cave near the mine entrance?
Have you heard of the Wielliczka Salt Mine? It has been worked for more than 800 years and the miners have created chapels and gallerys and even a cathedral down there. (Even the chandeliers are made of salt crystals).
As far as miner's respiratory diseases are concerned, I thought that silica dust was really dangerous. The body can get rid of coal dust but not the silica in the coal dust which lodges in the lungs and causes fibrous growths to occur. However the damage to the lungs from silica makes it harder for the body to expel the coal dust anyway.
The symptoms of fibrosis or miner's phthisis is a dry cough, shortness of breath, and when it is really bad, spitting-up blood.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited September 14, 2004).]
posted
Mines also tend to collect bad air (of all sorts, from radon to carbon dioxide). This is usually less of a problem with natural caverns, which tend to have at least some air flow.
Natural caverns also tend to have water flow. This can mean that some weather sensitive ores won't do well in caves, particularly older caves with lots of formations. The formations will also tend to obscure mineral veins. But many mines do connect to natural caverns sooner or later, and many caverns intersect good veins of ore.
The key is that when a cavern intersects a vein of ore, exploiting the vein of ore means digging away from the natural cavern. So you'll have two fairly distinct parts of such a cave, a mine, a cavern, and a place where one abruptly gives way to the other. An exception is where you have cave formations being mined, but these are usually of low value (particularly once you remove them from the cave). Still, it has been done.
posted
Caverns tend to form in carbonates, mostly in limestone, but also in dolomites. The Tri-States mining district of Oklahoma-Arkansas-Missouri is riddled with caves and mines. The minerals mostly commonly mined in those areas included galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, fluorite and dolomite. The most commonly mined rock in the area is limestone, with cave freshwater limestone (travertine) a close second. Many older limestone terrains such as the Tri-State area underwent significant surface weathering, and there were often materials available for minor exploitation by natives and settlers, including flint/chert and the iron oxides, goethite and limonite.
Caves were important routes to exploitable resources and, more importantly, to an understanding of the local geology. Given that understanding, mining moved from simple exploitation of near-surface exposures to prediction and deep mining.
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited September 14, 2004).]
Regarding mining dust, I agree with the above, and note that there is a close association between the general level of technology in any age, the minerals being mined, and the potential toxicity of the mineral dusts generated during mining. In general, for low technology, think of chronic exposures that would not necessarily be easily be linked to the mineral being exploited, and for high technology, think rapid, precise linking of cause and effect and exposure to more highly toxic minerals.
So, regardess of any other rationales, a stone age person might not ever link the grinding of galena for a gray-black paint, or Erythrite for a pinkish pigment, with poor health later in life (if they survived that long) and a 21st century miner might be aware of the potential toxicity before mining begins.
[This message has been edited by mikemunsil (edited September 14, 2004).]
posted
The big difference between caves and mines is that caves are stable and last for millions of years. Mines are man-made and fragile.
For centuries some caves were important wartime mines. Bats live in many caves. In caves with lots of bats you will find many tons of guano, which is good raw material for gunpowder.
Useful for fiction writers: Theoretically, a lightning strike near a guano-filled cave entrance can cause the guano to explode. This has obvious consequences for the cave. Stories of this may be a simple convergence of theory with urban legend, but because it is theoretically possible this could be a great plot device.
[This message has been edited by Doc Brown (edited September 16, 2004).]
posted
The key point is the concentration of ammonium nitrate that has accumulated. Rain and other exposure to weather will leech this substance out of a guano deposit, as will plant life. For obvious reasons, lightning strikes that actually go into caves are quite rare (but they do happen).
Anyway, such an unlikely event should be the cause of your story, rather than a convenient plot event. Consider it like a meteor impact killing someone. Yes, this theoretically can happen, in fact, it is nearly certain that it has happened. But consider how your readers will react if you save the hero by having a meteor strike the villian at the last second.
On the other hand, some guy getting killed by a meteor (or a cave being blown up by lightning detonating some concentrated guano) might well make a great starting point for the events of the story...the unlikely "trigger" that sets things in motion.
I ca not find the source for this, but I read that asbestos is often found in caves that are being mined for other things. I went looking on the web and only found references to its presence with serpentine rock.
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