Posted on 03/09/2005 12:27:39 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - An earthquake shook parts of northern South Africa on Wednesday, trapping 42 miners underground, damaging buildings and causing scores of minor injuries, officials and news media said.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5, was centered near Klerksdorp, 125 miles southwest of Johannesburg, said Ian Saunders of the National Seismograph Network at the Department of Geosciences in Pretoria.
The temblor trapped the workers 1 1/2 miles underground at a gold mine, the South African Press Association reported.
"Rescue teams are working to open entry tunnels that were closed by rock falls," Ilja Graulich, a spokesman for mine operator DRDGold, told the agency. He said the company did not know if any of the stranded miners was injured.
"We are digging. We are digging," he said.
He said 2,380 miners had been brought to safety on the surface, 778 were awaiting lifts to the surface, and 23 had been injured.
About 40 people in Stilfontein, 10 miles northeast of Klerksdorp, suffered minor injuries and structural damage forced the evacuation of several buildings, authorities said. No deaths or serious injuries were reported.
Saunders told SAPA the largest earthquake in South Africa hit in the Western Cape in 1969 with a magnitude of 6.1. A quake of magnitude 5 can cause considerable damage.
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Thankfully the elevator was damaged. I can only imagine the kind of hell that would have been.
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A moderate earthquake occurred at 10:15:33 (UTC) on Wednesday, March 9, 2005. The magnitude 5.0 event has been located in SOUTH AFRICA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)
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Do you the number of workers in that mine.....must be a big mine.
I just had a thought about this last night - also thought it might make a good movie that deep earth miners actually drill right into hell itself...
Also thought about safety - they must have two shafts drilled for emergencies...?
By Alistair Thomson
JOHANNESBURG, March 9 (Reuters) - At least 42 South African miners were trapped in collapsed shafts and hundreds of others awaited evacuation on Wednesday after an earthquake hit a gold mining area, company and union officials said.
Officials from gold mining company DRDGOLD <DRDJ.J> told Reuters that the 42 miners were around 2.4 km (1.5 miles) underground in a shaft near Silfontein that was cut off by fallen rock, but had life support systems with air and water.
"The guys are digging like mad at the moment trying to get to them," DRDGOLD spokesman Ilja Graulich said.
Union officials said as many as 300 other miners were waiting for safety inspection work to give them the all-clear for evacuation.
The quake, described by local seismologists as "very exceptional" for the area, measured 5.0 on the Richter scale and was felt in Johannesburg at 12:16 p.m. (1016 GMT). The epicentre was placed near Stilfontein, a town 155 km (97 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, experts at the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria said.
The National Union of Mineworkers said as many as 300 miners were waiting to be evacuated. A spokesman for the Solidarity miners union said they did not appear to be in any danger.
"It is just that they can't come up because of prospective damage to the shaft," Solidarity spokesman Dirk Hermann said.
The quake, which jolted buildings as far away as Johannesburg, injured 23 miners at DRDGOLD's North West mines, and others in Stilfontein.
"There is quite serious damage ... We are aware of 38 people that were injured, but they are minor injuries, no serious injuries," Police Superintendent Louis Jacobs told Reuters from Stilfontein by telephone.
THOUSANDS EVACUATED
DRD had evacuated around three quarters of the 3,200 miners underground when the quake hit the area, a key mining region for South Africa which is the world's biggest gold and platinum producer.
DRDGOLD said its seismic monitoring system picked up four large seismic events between 1015 and 1022 GMT and a number of smaller ones.
In Stilfontein, Jacobs said the main concern of emergency services was the structural safety of those buildings damaged.
"We have sent out engineers from the council to check the buildings that were damaged, to make sure that they are safe," he said.
Experts at the Council for Geoscience said small earthquakes triggered by underground mining operations happen in South Africa on an almost daily basis, but Wednesday's quake was exceptional.
"It is difficult to determine the cause. The magnitude tells us that it is most probably a re-activation of an old fault ... a secondary effect of mining," said Ian Saunders, a geotechnologist at the Council for Geoscience.
DRDGOLD said it was too early to speculate about the cause of the quake.
Saunders's colleague, seismologist Eldridge Kgaswane, said Wednesday's quake was exceptional in being so severe.
"In normal cases you would have a magnitude of 1, 2 or in exceptional cases 3, so this is very exceptional," Kgaswane said.
Naturally occurring earthquakes are rare in South Africa. The last major one, which occurred in 1969 north of Cape Town, measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and caused extensive damage, the Council for Geoscience's website said. 
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DRDGOLD said its seismic monitoring system picked up four large seismic events between 1015 and 1022 GMT and a number of smaller ones.
I would have no idea. Interesting question though.
At that depth the temperature is probably close to 100 degrees Farenheit. Without ventilation or cooling there isn't much chance of them surviving very long. Poor fellows.
Those mines are insane. I lived in Carletonville in South Africa for a time. The workers said it is about 115 degrees down that far. The cage elevators would decend almost at extreme speed and it would still take minutes to get to the bottom.
--alternate exits are SOP in virtually all underground mines--
115 degrees....that is hot.
Send 'W'. He knows how to take care of situations like that too!
More tremors shook the Stilfontein area in the early evening as rescue workers battled to unblock collapsed tunnels at the Hartbeesfontein gold mine.
The largest recorded earthquake in South Africa hit in the Western Cape in 1969 with a magnitude of 6.1. A quake of magnitude 5 can cause considerable damage.
prayer bump
bttt
Except for the one victim, thank God the rest were brought up alive!
Pretty remarkable that was all , although there is one missing
also.
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