Application of Geophysical Technique in the Coal Mining

Although coal is one of the most prevalent energy resources in the world, coal production has been a high risk industry due to its frequent accidents, especially in the developing nations. As well known, the main reason for that problem is that the potential disaster sources are not prospected before coal mining. Hence, it is very necessary to be advanced prospecting before the coal mining. Usually, the work of advanced prospecting can be done by the geophysical methods. According to the difference of disasters source physical characters, different geophysical methods can be employed. Because of different geophysical methods owning their advantages and disadvantages, this paper provides a general introduction to the most important methods used in the coal mining. These methods represent a primary tool for advanced prospecting to the disaster source. Although their main application is in prospecting disaster source in the coal mining, the methods are also used in other fields, for example, railway tunnel, environmental engineering and city construction. Consequently, geophysical method is of importance not only to geophysicists but also to geologists, engineers and archaeologists. The paper only covers the basic physical principles, methodology, and application fields of the various survey method