The times., 1901-06-09
BURIED VALLEY OF WYOMING.
The Curious Cause of Many serious
Mining Accidents.


| SCRANTON. Pa. June S.-'''The B lried
valley Of Wyoming" has been a subject
| OF careful consideration by the State Geo,
! logical Survey, and engineers have been
| appointed to prepare maps of the location
| and depth of the buried valley with ths.
view of reducing the possibility of mining
| accidents 20 a minimum
| During the Ice Age the ice sheet is
| supposed to have been 2,000 feet thick
over the Wyoming coal basin. In this
| glacial area the rock is now usually coy
| cred by a variable thickness of drift
| consisting of layers OF sand. gravel, and
bouiders. large and small, all more or less
| worn by the action OF the water In some
places, where large streams were proba-
| bly flowing under the ice. deep channels
| were cut in the rock. and subsequently,
hlled with glacial drift Where these
channels were deeper than their outlets
iaKes were formed, and these often filed
| 10 considerable depth with fine silt or
| quicksand. clay, and gravel
one of these submerged channels.
which extends through the length of the
| wyoming Valley. is often referred to as
The Buried Valley of wyoming The
| water and ice have worn away rock to
q depth Of from 100 to 200 feet. erodine
some of the upper coal seams. and Ieav-
ing the rock roof over the underlying
coal of an uneven thickness
Another phenomenon resulting from
glacial action is the formation of pot
holes. A glacial pot-hole is a deep shaft.
or hole. chiseled in the solid rock by
water falling from height. and keeping
in motion fragments of stone. The size
and depth of the pot-holes depend OF
the volume of water and the height of
the fall Small pot-holes varying in size
from pint measure to a hogshead are
often found worn in the bed rock of our
mountain streams, formed in the same
way. The existence Of huge pot-holes
in the anthracite region was first dis
covered in 1884, when one of the cham
bers of the Eaton colliery at Archibald
was driven against q mass of round
stones of all sizes, from pei;iIes TO bouId-
ers foot in diameter. Subsequent in
vestigation revealed the existence of an
oval-shaped shaft from twenty to forty
feet in diameter worn through the rock
from the surface This pot-hoIe had cut
completely through the coal bed. and
among the boulders in the bottom of the
hole were quantities of round Iumps Of
coal which had evidently been cut from
the seam. This pot-hole is now used as
an airshaft for the mire.
Since the discovery of the Archibald pot
hole two serious mine accidents have oc-
CURED under the buried valleys, which
were cuestiOnabIy caused by the exist
ence of some form of pot-hole in the stra-
ia everything the beds. The first of these
accidents-which was one of the most
disastrous of the regiOn-occurred Decem-
Der Is, 1SS5. at the Susquehanna Coal
Company's mine. Nanticoke AT the edge
OF the solid coal near the face of cham
Der, food Of water, sand. and rounded
stones without warning broke into the =
mine, filing up 10000 cubic yards OF
workings. The lives of twenty-six men
were lost, and their bodies were not re-
covered. The other accident occurred in
1897 at the Mount Lookout colliery at Wy
eming, Pa, operated by Simpson & Wat
lins. About 9,000 cubic yards of quick
sand washed into the mine, causing a
surface depression about 600 feet in diam
eter and twenty-five feet deep. 1t enguif-
ed the pOstOthce completely, and did some
damage to three other buildings Fortu-
nately the mines were idle, and no life was
lost.
The various mining companies in their
EFFORTS TO extend their operations under
the centre Of the valley. have been Obliged
to bore a great number of diamond drill
holes in order to ascertain the depth of
the wash. From the data regarding these
holes furnished by the different COM
panies a map Of the valley locating ap-
DroMmately the outlines of this sunken
provide against the accidents that are la
bic to occur by blindIy prosecuting the ap-
erduonS without proper soundingS in ad-
vance of the workings.