World's Largest underground chamber from mining?

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fjällvandring
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12 years ago

In terms of caves the Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnan, and the Sarawak chamber are the largest discovered so far I think but there seems to be very little online on a possible largest man made cavern as a result of mining. Any ideas? 🙂 Some slate mine chambers in Wales are pretty big.

jeg elsker Norge, landets dialekter, folk, landskap og naturen!

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Knocker
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12 years ago

Possibly one of the big iron mines like Kiruna in Sweden

NewStuff
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12 years ago

"Knocker" wrote:
Possibly one of the big iron mines like Kiruna in Sweden

I would suspect H&S will knock anything modern out of the running, as they leave in more material to support the roof.

Some of the salt mines in Europe are pretty big IIRC, and I 'd suspect some Welsh slate is up there. It also depends on how you define the void being measured. If it's just the space between 4 walls, then somewhere like Moel Fferna with long multi-level chambers would score highly as You are ignoring the levels.

Searching for the ever elusive Underground Titty Bar.

DDDWH CC

Knocker
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12 years ago

Kiruna consists of one Lode, 80m thick (dipping at 60 degrees), mining commenced at surfaced and the mine has got progressively deeper, currently at over 1000m. The strike length is 4km. This has been mined using sub level block caving - I don't know how much of the stope is open at present.

The mine produces some 27 Million Tonnes per year and the development tunnels etc are enormous.

fjällvandring
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Newbie Topic Starter

12 years ago

The Turdu salt mine in Romania certainly seems to have some enormous underground chambers.

In terms of slate, Aberllefenni, Hen Gloddfa, Wrysgan all have enormous underground cavities, there are also slate mines in Luxembourg (now mostly flooded) with large, almost vertical chambers.

I've been to Kiruna but didn't get a chance to go down the mine, I haven't seen any pictures of enormous caverns, I have seen many of large workings but none of them with a huge vertical distance. The iron mines around Bergslagen are large too, some of the chambers in those mines are huge, Tuna Hastberg comes to mind

jeg elsker Norge, landets dialekter, folk, landskap og naturen!

Graigfawr
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12 years ago

Many hyro electricity scheme underground turbine halls have large volumes and, usually being in very hard rock, tend to be self-supporting.

Try the Guinness Book of Structures and Civil Engineering Facts and feats (misremembered title).

fjällvandring
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12 years ago

I've heard one of the chambers in Dinorwig is the largest in Europe, but again, not sure how they would measure that.

jeg elsker Norge, landets dialekter, folk, landskap og naturen!

Digit
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12 years ago

"fjällvandring" wrote:
I've heard one of the chambers in Dinorwig is the largest in Europe, but again, not sure how they would measure that.

I think it would be wise to define what is meant by 'largest'. It could be volume or area. Dinorwig's big chamber is big by volume, (from what I've seen on telly) salt mines have chambers that are big by area. I guess 'big by area' is the more impressive because of the area of unsupported roof.

~~~ The future is not what it used to be ~~~

rikj
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12 years ago

In salt mines using solution mining, there are some very big chambers created. They are created with their future use as storage facilities in mind.

One solution mined cavity in America has a span (width) of 61m, and a height of 610m.

fjällvandring
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12 years ago

#10

Hmm could you pm me the name? Sounds amazing, that would make sense, so far it seems salt mines are at the top

jeg elsker Norge, landets dialekter, folk, landskap og naturen!

rikj
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12 years ago

#11

"fjällvandring" wrote:
Hmm could you pm me the name? Sounds amazing, that would make sense, so far it seems salt mines are at the top

No name given, but the info is from this article:

http://www.solutionmining.org/assets/files/BriefHistory.pdf

That one is under construction in South Louisiana. They will all be full of brine or one of several stored gases.

No height given for this next one, but quite wide!

For example, a brine cavern in the Bryan Mound dome in the U.S. has a span of about 335 m (1100 ft). Such standing examples encourage construction of larger storage caverns.

fjällvandring
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12 years ago

#12

Would be interesting to see them before they become storage areas, I'm sure there must be some pretty massive ones in Europe which can be seen, whether solution mined salt chambers or not, though it's a challenge knowing where they are

jeg elsker Norge, landets dialekter, folk, landskap og naturen!

RJV
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12 years ago

#13

I'm not sure that any single area at CERN would compete but as a whole I imagine it would be a fantastic place to visit. So long as you can avoid that dick off the telly anyhow...