Mining-Induced Seismicity in the Kola Peninsula Mines

Mining-induced seismicity is a reflection of rock geomechanical evolution of geological environment in the natural and man-made systems and in the mining-technical systems. In order to predict and prevent mining-induced seismicity, it is necessary to research geodynamics and stress state of intact rock mass, to determine possible deformations and additional stresses as a result of large-scale rock extraction, conditions of accumulated energy release. For that a geodynamical monitoring is required on every stage of deposit development and a closing. The report considers principal influencing factors of preparation and occurrence of mining-induced earthquakes. Also it estimates precursors and indicators of rock mass breaking point, and experience concerning prediction and prevention of mining-induced seismicity in the Khibiny apatite mines in the Murmansk region, which is the largest mining province.

Automated Rock Detection and Shape Analysis from Mars Rover Imagery and 3D Point Cloud Data

A new object-oriented method has been developed for the extraction of Mars rocks from Mars rover data. It is based on a combination of Mars rover imagery and 3D point cloud data. First, Navcam or Pancam images taken by the Mars rovers are segmented into homogeneous objects with a mean-shift algorithm. Then, the objects in the segmented images are classified into small rock candidates, rock shadows, and large objects. Rock shadows and large objects are considered as the regions within which large rocks may exist. In these regions, large rock candidates are extracted through ground-plane fitting with the 3D point cloud data. Small and large rock candidates are combined and postprocessed to obtain the final rock extraction results. The shape properties of the rocks （angularity, circularity, width, height, and width-height ratio） have been calculated for subsequent ~eological studies.