Seismic reflection rechniques in coal exploration

Abstract

In recent years coal has regained its importance in the world as a major energy source. Much of Australia's coal lies at depths necessitating extraction by underground techniques which are extremely vulnerable to coal seam disruptions such as faults and washouts. In order to plan, for the most economic and efficient mining of underground reserves, there is a need to know the exact location of these features long before they are encountered at the working face. Experience has shown that deep drilling is prohibitively expensive and lacks the ability to indicate even large structures between drill holes.