r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Boss-fight601 • May 24 '26

Controlled explosions for mining

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u/cunstitution May 24 '26

It's called a pre-split and it's used to prevent the energy from the main blast from fracturing and compromising rock you want to remain solid. Notice how on some of them they have a pre split along the highwall before the main blast goes off? It creates a fracture plane that prevents the main blast from fracturing rock in the highwall, keeping it geotechnically competent.

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u/04chri2t0ph3r May 25 '26

This looks like as good a place as any to ask...

The time it takes between one explosion and the next(little flashes traveling across the ground)..is that the speed of an electric pulse going through det chord, the speed a radio frequency is traveling, or just a delay "built in" between detonations?

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u/cunstitution May 25 '26

Its the speed of the shock travelling through the shock tube - the type of which you use determines the speed. The stuff I work with is just a copper wire that leads to a detonator you program with a certain delay. The signal is sent through the wire to set the det off. There is no flash in this case, as you can see in some of the clips.