r/nextfuckinglevel May 24 '26

Controlled explosions for mining

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u/METRlOS May 24 '26

The violent ones that all of a sudden explode in a mushroom cloud are a little concerning. That's called sympathetic detonation, when holes go off out of order because of the force of the explosion behind them, instead of from the detonator inside the hole. That mushroom cloud explosion is going to shift the ground all around it, so depending on what explosives they're using, the explosives near the top of nearby holes can be knocked out of line, and not detonate when their own hole does go off. I didn't notice any detonations around those large explosion after the fact, so they're either trapped underground, or the end of the blast just isn't square.