The authors have developed a geodynamic model and formulated conditions of avalanche self-sustained failure of coal in face zone based on analysis of the accomplished physical modeling and in situ observation of failure of coal in limit stress state.

A method is developed for estimating the outburst and rock burst hazard of coal seams and faces of mine workings on the basis of determination of rock-mass energy. It is approved in a number of mines located in the Kuznetsk Basin.

The geomechanical substantiation is presented for a new technology of intensifying the methane extraction from coal seams. This technology meets requirements of resource saving and ecological safety. The experimentally established criteria of strength and regularities of coal failure in changing the type of the stress state were used.

A method is proposed for predicting bursts in coal seams by means of an index which for the first time takes comprehensive account of the seam stress and the energy of the gas which can take part in the burst, these values being determined in the light of the physical and mechanical properties of the coals themselves. The author shows how it is possible to determine quantitatively the burst probabilities for various mining and geological conditions.

We have given some results above of laboratory and field research on the structures and mechanical and physical-chemical properties of coals from burst-prone and burst-free seams, as well as results of studies of the movement of gas in coal seams, carried out at the Skochinskii Mining Institute over the last 15 years.