Abandoned Underground Mines - Part II.

Greetings to all my friends and readers from this, my latest post which has been much delayed. (Too much field work, but a geologist is only happy in the field).

Today, I bring you, for the first time EVER in any medium, pics of the Weber O'Fallon abandoned underground. How about THAT?! You possibly might remember it from my Abandoned Underground Mines post some time back, but I nonetheless thought it might be worthwhile to share some of the pics with you.
This first pic shows two of our team members after they've descended the scree pile into the mine, about 75 feet below the surface. As you can see, there's a lot of rubble on the pile, all of it from the collapse of the roof overhead during episodes of repeated blasting at the adjacent quarry, and from frost action.




The next pic shows one of our team members....remember, these guys are PROFESSIONALS. All of us were carrying three sources of light (like cavers do), we had gas detectors, and the woooden pole is for poking into water to see if there's an optical illusory pit. I've seen a few of these in caves....pits that look clear as glass on the top and appear benign...but you step into it, and there's a current awaiting to suck you into it.



I CANNOT overemphasize the importance of training. KIDS, DON'T EVER EVEN THINK OF DOING THIS. Even I had apprehensive feelings about going in, but I trusted in my training, in my ability to keep a cool head under pressure, my patience, and the skills of observing as a scientist to keep me out of trouble.

Until my next post, be safe and happy.

Trenchless Geologist