mic failure may be defined as the abrupt, violent ejection of coal or rock within a working area of an underground coal mine (Peng, 2008). These events may occur with little or no warning. Despite evolving mining techniques and practices, dynamic failures continue to occur. Between 1983 and 2013, American coal mines have experienced nearly 400 cases of reportable dynamic failure accidents, resulting in more than 20 deaths, 155 lost-time accidents and an estimated 48,000 lost man hours. While these events are relatively rare in relation to other types of ground control accidents, they resulted in worker injury in greater than 50 percent of cases reported to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) after the year 2000, and the fatality rate per capita for these events is more than 10 times that associated with roof falls (MSHA, 2020).
