Eruption of Tainted Water Could Innundate Leadville, Colorado
Project Related
The Drillers, Rigs, Rock and Hart of the Chile Mine Rescue
As 33 trapped miners waited more than 2,000-ft underground for their rescue, a whole team of Chilean government officials, mining engineers, equipment manufacturers and of course drillers came together get the job done. Jeff Hart, a driller from Denver, Colorado was one of the stars of the day. Hart was in Afghanistan drilling deep water wells when he got the call and hopped on a plane. He works for Kansas-based Layne Christensen, and along with 3 other Layne employees, he manned the Schramm T130 drill rig that was part of “Plan B” that eventually became the shaft from which the trapped miners were rescued.
On the drilling platform overseeing the drilling was James Stefanic of Layne, and crew members Matt Staffel, Doug Reeves and Jorge Herrera. The rig and I presume some of the support equipment was owned by Layne’s Latin America affiliate, Geotec Boyles Bros, SA. The drill bits were from Center Rock, Inc. of Berlin, Pennsylvania. The Center Rock CEO, Brandon Fisher, was on site throughout the operation as well.
Read on for more info, photos, video and links on the drilling, drillers and geology of the Chile Mine rescue.
Geologic Hazards
GEER Report for Hurricane Sandy
The Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance or GEER group funded by the NSF puts experts on the ground in the aftermath of natural disasters to collect geotechnical data that can used in case studies and ultimately […]
Geologic Hazards
Flooding in Supai Canyon
There have been a number of reports on the flooding in Supai Canyon, near the Grand Canyon this past weekend. I think the best description of the event and the subsequent rescues was from the AZ211 website which I found by way of the Arizona Geology Blog (quoted after the break). The flood was impressive. I hope the areas near Havassu Falls and Mooney Falls were not too heavily damaged. I was fortunate enough to hike and camp that location back in College, the travertine is just amazing and makes the water so green. Mooney Falls and the area downstream are particularly breathtaking. [Photo credit: National Parks Service]
Many reports I’ve seen attribute the flood the result of the failure of the Redlands Dam. But again, the Arizona Geology Blog quotes the National Park Service as saying that the dam is a minor one meant to create a pond for livestock and wasn’t a significant factor in the flooding. The latest reports I saw was that 11 hikers who were missing were located today (by way of Geology.com)