Posted by Jock on October 06, 2005 at 00:53:09 from 84.69.115.112 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Mine exploration (was Re: Church Beck as the River Amazon?) posted by John Nichols on October 05, 2005 at 22:17:13:
John, Now I understand. It would take more than a year's worth of free CSS lessons to get me anywhere near a disused coal mine. A few years ago some children explored a working china clay mine on a Sunday and I'm afraid the build up of methane from rotting pit props was such that they did not get out alive.
Methane is not usually a problem in the Coniston mines. There are many interconnected levels and quite a wind blows down many of the tunnels. Rotting floors where access routes cross areas where the ore has been excavated for many hundreds of feet down are a more serious problem. But as Ian says in his next post the accessible Coniston levels are not in areas where 5 year olds play unsupervised.
Incidentally in Poland there is a disused uranium mine that's been turned into a tourist attraction. The publicity leaflets sing the health virtues of the radon gas chamber!
Sorry about my CSS post. I was interrupted by a Skype call. I have now posted it in the thread titled "CSS".