User:Ineloquent/1958

The 1958 Springhill mining disaster occured in a Springhill mine on 23 October, 1958, when mine No. 2's gallery pillars catastrophically disintegrated due to intense geological stress weighing on the surrounding bedrock. This resulted in a "bump" — the rock floor rose swiftly and without warning to meet the mine's ceiling, immediantly killing dozens of miners. In several places, however, the floor stopped before hitting the ceiling, and for this reason some miners survived the initial.

It is one of three well-known Springhill mining disasters, the subject of several books, and the most severe "bump" in North American mining history.

Background
The deepest North American coal operation of its time, No. 2 Colliery was a vast mine in Springhill, Nova Scotia, one of several owned by the Dominion Coal and Steel Company. According to Last Man Out, a book describing the events, "bumps" were frequent, happening "once or twice a month." Not all of these bumps were dangerous, and indeed, most smaller ones only loosened the coal and were welcome. It was only large bumps which could send the floor rocketing into the ceiling.