On November 19, 2014, the whole country learned that a terrible failure of the soil occurred in Solikamsk. A well with steep walls has formed on the territory of the slowly fading garden cooperative Klyuchik, reaching a size of 30 by 40 m. Here, due to previous subsidence of the soil, electricity has already been cut off, and many sites have been abandoned since 2005.
Why did the failure in Solikamsk happen?
What is the cause of such events that are dangerous to people? After all, it was argued that at least one country house, which had not yet been abandoned by the owners, disappeared in the failure. And just lucky that the failure formed in the late autumn, when the garden plots were empty.
The main reason for the repeated subsidence and failures that have occurred in this area is rocks. The fact is that under the ground there are powerful layers of rock and potassium salts - the most valuable raw materials for the production of fertilizers. The city has been known since 1430, when work began on the boiling out of salt. Since then, the specialization of Solikamsk has been maintained. Salt mining and fertilizer production are city-forming industries, the main place of work and the source of income for the population.
At the same time, salt was one of the reasons why the failure occurred in Solikamsk. Groundwater dissolves it, and cavities form in the bowels of the earth. Also, voids arise as a result of mining. If water enters such cavities, salt washing is also added to the dissolution process. The voids are rapidly increasing in size. Often the roof above them does not withstand its own gravity and collapses, forming dips and craters on the surface of the earth. These phenomena are called karst processes.
History of Salt Failures
Perm Territory is one of the main centers of world production of mineral fertilizers. He owes this title to salt deposits, concentrated mainly under the cities of Solikamsk and Berezniki. This is where the active extraction of potassium salts takes place.
The first major event related to the dissolution of salts by underground waters and the collapse of the arch of the resulting voids occurred in 1986. Then, at one of the Uralkali ore mines, a real man-made earthquake occurred. The formation of a dip and a fall in the multi-ton mass of rocks was accompanied by flares and an explosion of accumulated gases.
As a result, a funnel formed, which in a couple of weeks was filled with water. Back in 1988, its depth was estimated at 105 m, and 14 years after the formation was 52 m. At the same time, the territory near the failure continued to slowly settle, i.e. the dissolution and leaching of salts in the bowels did not stop.
The years 1995 and 1997 were marked by new collapses and, as a result, earthquakes up to 4 points in magnitude. Fortunately, there were no victims: the trouble did not affect residential areas.
But in 1998-2001, the destruction affected settlements. Not far from the village of New Zyryanka, a new failure occurred. Near the river port, there was a strong subsidence of the soil. And along the Mendeleev street in Berezniki itself, several houses and the building of a boarding school were destroyed. I had to carry out the evacuation of the population from dangerous territories.
New failures
In October 2006, an accident occurred at the first mine - flooding of an underground mine, which had to be abandoned, abandoning even valuable equipment. And in July 2007, a collapse of the soil took place in the industrial zone, forming a funnel measuring 40 by 60 m. Then there was a growth of the failure, the length of which reached almost half a kilometer.
Unlike the previous ones, this failure occurred in the immediate vicinity of industrial and residential buildings. Only a few meters separated it from the administrative building of the mine administration. The buildings of the industrial salt and drying factory were in the danger zone. In the end, the canvas of a part of the Chusovaya-Berezniki-Solikamsk railway collapsed. Traffic in this section was stopped, and subsequently a bypass line was laid.
Tragedy on failure
During 2010-2012, several more failures occurred. When trying to fall asleep one of them, a tragic event happened. The wall of failure collapsed, taking with it two bulldozers and a loader. The driver of the latter did not have time to jump out and died.
And here is November 2014 and a new failure. In Solikamsk, residents ask themselves the same question as in Berezniki: will the next failure happen directly under the residential buildings? How to protect yourself?
So, in the immediate danger zone, besides Berezniki, there was Solikamsk (photo). Failure is just the tip of the iceberg. Nobody can say for sure how large the voids underground created by the dissolution of salts are.
Soil failure in Yamal
In the summer of 2014, on the Yamal Peninsula, helicopter pilots discovered a dip of simply incredible depth - more than 200 m. This giant pit is located near the Bovanenkovsky natural gas field.
And just in November last year, Russian scientists were able to go down to the bottom of this amazing funnel. They managed to take samples of soil, water and air. But there was no answer to the main question: how did such a huge formation arise in the permafrost of the peninsula?
We name the main versions of its origin. The first is a meteorite fall, the second is an explosion. Scientists suggest that due to the thawing of permafrost, reserves of shale gas were released, which escaped to the surface, forming a funnel. At the same time, a gas explosion was possible, which explains the melted walls of the funnel.
As we see, failures in the earth are by no means a rare phenomenon in nature. The causes of their formation are most often various natural processes: dissolution of rocks (karst), permafrost melting. But they are amplified with the active economic activity of man, as the failure in Solikamsk shows. And here the most important thing is to avoid victims, to find a reasonable compromise between economic necessity and human security.