HUNTINGTON, Utah, Aug. 29 Experts studying an Aug. 6 Utah coal mine collapse that trapped six miners say "all of the evidence" indicates the collapse was not caused by an earthquake.
Douglas Dreger, associate professor of geophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, said analysis of seismic readings from the collapse and the Aug. 16 blowout of the mine walls that killed three rescuers supports the conclusion that the collapse was caused by the mine itself, USA Today reported Wednesday.
Dreger said data collected from the blowout shows the earth moved in a similar, albeit smaller, fashion at the time of the initial collapse. He said the evidence indicates the collapse was caused by activity inside the mine.
The exact cause of the collapse remains unknown, but "the results of our analysis show that most of the seismic wave energy is consistent with an underground collapse," said a study authored by Dreger and colleagues at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
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