Failure of man-made cavities in salt and surface subsidence due to sulfur mining

An engineering data base relevant to subsidence due to sulfur mining and to structural failure of cavities in salt is established, evaluated and documented. Nineteen failure events are discussed. Based on these documented failure events, capabilities of and inputs to a mathematical model of cavity failure are determined. Two failure events are adequately documented for use in model verification studies. A conclusion of this study that is pertinent to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is that cavity failures in dome salt are fairly rare, but that as the number of large cavities (especially those having large roof spans) increases, failures will probably be more common unless stability and failure mechanisms of cavities are better understood