Plastic Flowage of Salt in Mines at Hutchinson and Lyons, Kansas

Abstract

Plastic flowage in the pillars and floors of salt mines at Hutchinson and Lyons, Kansas, is indicated by buckling, spalling, and fracturing. Detailed measurements of the relative size of the pillars in newly opened rooms and crosscuts were made over a period of 11 months. These data indicate that the salt flowage is due to pressure of the overburden and is controlled by the volume of salt excavated and configuration of the excavation. Plastic flowage causes folds and fractures to develop only in the floor of the Lyons mine. The orientation of structures and rates of flowage in the base, top, and middle of pillars are governed by the direction of easiest relief of stress, which is controlled by the mining plan.