Protecting Wieliczka Salt Mine against water hazard on the example of the mina traverse

Abstract

Water surrounding every salt mine creates catastrophic hazard for that place. One of such cases is uncontrollable flooding of the Wapno Salt Mine, near Innowrocław (see article Kortas G. and Maj A., Przegląd Solny, 10, 2014). The causes of catastrophic water fluxes to the Mina traverse located in level IV at a depth of 170 m b.s. in the historical Wieliczka Salt Mine is presented in this paper. The complex geological build of the immediate neighborhood of the Mina traverse was described, paying attention to the evidently disadvantageous hydrogeological conditions in the northern part of the salt dome. The most important actions aimed at limiting the water hazard in Wieliczka Salt Mine concentrated on managing and so liquidat-ing the disastrous flux of water and solids to the Mina traverse, which started in 1992. A unique solution was proposed to solve this problem, i.e. an internal safety pillar was construed with the use of dedicated unique technologies.