Mechanism of rockburst induced by the microseismic event in the floor strata of high tectonic stress zones: A case study

Abstract With the increase of mining scope, rockburst occurs frequently, but its generation mechanism has not been understood comprehensively. Based on a rockburst in the coal pillar area of high tectonic stress zones (HTSZs), this study analyzed the distribution characteristics of large-energy microseismic (MS) events by using data statistics. The mechanical cause of the MS event that induced the rockburst was revealed by means of seismic moment tensor inversion. On this basis, by using numerical simulation, this study explored the distribution characteristics of static load in rockburst area and the effect of dynamic load in the floor, and then proposed the rockburst mechanism. The results show that under the squeezing action, the floor strata in HTSZs implode and transmit energy outward in the form of stress waves. This causes the cumulative damage and stress of the coal body in the fast track of coal pillar area increase in a short time. Since the coal in this area has already been in the critical stress state, small stress changes may lead to coal failure and rockburst. In this case of rockburst, the high static load of coal is the main force source, and the dynamic load plays a role in increasing coal body damage and inducing rockburst. Combined with seismic moment tensor inversion and numerical simulation, this paper proposes a rockburst research scheme, which makes the simulation of dynamic load more reasonable. The results provide the theoretical basis for rockburst control under similar conditions.