Solikamsky failure: a chronicle of events. Reasons for what happened and a forecast for the future

In November last year, residents of Russia learned that in Solikamsk, the Perm Krai found a huge dip of the soil. It was not a joke or a joke - in the photos from the scene of events in the ground a gigantic funnel of an almost perfect circle gleamed.

Solikamsk can be called the salt capital of Russia. Here are: the oldest salt mine, a museum and a salt monument. Now here there was a new attraction - Solikamsky failure.

Chronicle of events

November 18, 2014 at the mine "Solikamsk-2" there was an accident - began to receive groundwater. Part of the pumps was flooded with brine (a mixture of salts and water), and at 13:50 Moscow time it was decided to introduce a submarine (the plan to eliminate the accident). 120 employees of the mine were immediately brought to the surface. Along with the brine, explosive hydrogen sulphide came to the mine, so power was cut off.

Three and a half kilometers from residential buildings in Solikamsk, on the site of the old, unexploited company mine, on the same day, a dip was found, the dimensions of which at that time were 20 to 30 meters.

Event Location

Rudoupravleniya "Solikamsk-2" is a factory for the production of potassium chloride and, in fact, the mine itself. The mine is part of the Uralkali company. Its owners are Mikhail Prokhorov and Uralkhim, headed by Dmitry Mazepin. Part of the shares belongs to the Chinese company.

Uralkali is one of the leading companies in the extraction of potassium fertilizers, which supplies about 20% of the world's volume to the market. The accident, which stopped the work of the mine "Solikamsk-2", led to the collapse of the company's shares.

The settlement near Solikamsk, where a failure occurred, stopped the work of the mine Solikamsk-2, is called Klyuchiki. It is located above the abandoned mines of the mine, a few kilometers from the city limits and residential buildings.

Causes of what happened

Now experts are working to find out what caused the formation of the Solikamsk dip: a person or natural factors? If we talk about past similar incidents, in part they were due to a violation of technology. The potassium mines have an average life span of about 50-60 years, and eventually they are all submerged groundwater. Only here the negative consequences of this can still be reduced to a minimum. Those voids that are formed in the process of mining potash ore, you need to lay waste rock.

Above the potash mines is a heterogeneous layer of rock: above the potassium salt layer there is a layer of rock salts, and even higher - more than 100 meters of rock saturated with groundwater. The latter gradually break their way into the voids formed during the development of potassium ore. An earthquake can spur this process. This happened, for example, in 1995, when an earthquake with a force of 4 points led to the appearance of cracks in the rock, brine breakage and failure. As they believe, the earthquake caused the November accident at the mine "Solikamsk-2".

By a lucky chance, the Solikamsky failure did not arise in a populated place, otherwise the victims would not be avoided. The holiday village Klyuchiki has long been abandoned. After the 1995 earthquake, water supply was disrupted, and gradually the buildings and dachas were abandoned. But the inhabitants of Solikamsk fear that their city can comprehend the fate of Berezniki, where ground failures began to occur in the city. So far, it has been decided to install sensors in the homes located in the immediate vicinity of the company's second mine, transmitting information online.

Projections for the future

According to experts and engineers, the Solikamsk failure will grow. In December 2014, it increased in its upper part due to the natural subsidence of the soil. Now Solikamsky failure, the depth of which has not yet been determined, has increased again. According to the latest information, its dimensions are 50 by 80 meters. During this time he became three times more. If the inflow of the brine into the mine continued at the same level, it was possible to predict that the failure near Solikamsk would continue to increase, unless urgent measures were taken to eliminate the consequences of the November accident. In December, it became clear that the water enters the mine several times less. And if the company at the beginning of events believed that the mine was almost lost, now with a greater degree of confidence, experts say that it can still be saved. Since the beginning of December, the mine started mining rock to lay it in the void.

All repeats

Solikamsky failure is far from the first in the history of Uralkali. Similar events occurred in 1986 and 1995.

In 2006, the mine of the company BKRU-1, located near the city of Berezniki, was flooded, and a year later a failure occurred in its place, which eventually increased. Over the next few years, a few more failures appeared that threatened homes. As a result, Uralkali was forced to take over part of the financing for resettlement of residents from the danger zone and laying bypassing the railway.

Reaction to Solikamsky failure on the Internet: fotozhaby

The Internet community responded to the incident under Solikamsk with a kind of humor.

The failure became a popular fotozhaba. Some "masterpieces" turned out to be quite amusing, despite the seriousness of what happened.