Mining, water-reservoir impoundment, underground gas storage, geothermal energy exploitation and hydrocarbon extraction have the potential to cause rock deformation and earthquakes, which may be hazardous for people, infrastructure and the environment. Restricted access to data constitutes a barrier to assessing and mitigating the associated hazards. Thematic Core Service Anthropogenic Hazards (TCS AH) of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS) provides a novel e-research infrastructure. The core of this infrastructure, the IS-EPOS Platform (tcs.ah-epos.eu) connected to international data storage nodes offers open access to large grouped datasets (here termed episodes), comprising geoscientific and associated data from industrial activity along with a large set of embedded applications for their efficient data processing, analysis and visualization. The novel team-working features of the IS-EPOS Platform facilitate collaborative and interdisciplinary scientific research, public understanding of science, citizen science applications, knowledge dissemination, data-informed policy-making and the teaching of anthropogenic hazards related to georesource exploitation. TCS AH is one of 10 thematic core services forming EPOS, a solid earth science European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) (www.epos-ip.org).

On 19 March 2013, a tremor shook the surface of Polkowice town where the Rudna Mine is located. This event, of ML = 4.2, was the third most powerful seismic event recorded in the Legnica Głogów Copper District (LGCD). Inhabitants of the area reported that the felt tremor was bigger and lasted longer than any other ones felt in the last couple of years. Analysis of spectral parameters of the records from in-mine seismic system and surface LUMINEOS network along with broadband station KSP record were carried out. The location of the event was close to the Rudna Główna Fault zone; the nodal planes orientations determined with two different approaches were almost parallel to the strike of the fault. The mechanism solutions were also obtained as Full Moment Tensor from P-wave amplitude pulses of underground records and waveform inversion of surface network seismograms. The results from the seismic analysis along with macroseismic survey and observed effects from the destroyed part of the mining panel indicate that the mechanism of the event was complex rupture initiated as thrust faulting on an inactive tectonic normal fault zone. The results confirm that the fault zones are the areas of higher risk, even in case of carefully taken mining operations.

On 19 March 2013, a strong, shallow, induced seismic event struck a mining panel in the room‐and‐pillar Rudna copper mine in southeastern Poland. The event caused important damage at the mining tunnel and trapped 19 miners, who were safely rescued a few hours later. Although mining‐induced seismicity is frequent at this mine, the 19 March event was unusual because of its larger magnitude, its occurrence far from the mining stopes, and because it was accompanied by a strong hazardous rockburst. The mining inspections following the event verified the occurrence of a rockfall with tunnel floor uplift but also recognized the presence of a faulting structure at the hypocentral location. The availability of three monitoring networks (including local and regional data, short‐period and broadband seismometers, and surface and in‐mine installation) presented an optimal setup to determine rupture parameters and to compare the performance and results from different installations.

Tectonic seismicity in Poland is sparse. The biggest event was located near Myślenice in 17th century of magnitude 5.6. On the other hand, the anthropogenic seismicity is one of the highest in Europe related, for example, to underground mining in Upper Silesian Coal Basin (USCB) and Legnica Głogów Copper District (LGCD), open pit mining in “Bełchatów” brown coal mine and reservoir impoundment of Czorsztyn artificial lake. The level of seismic activity in these areas varies from tens to thousands of events per year. Focal mechanism and full moment tensor (MT) decomposition allow for deeper understanding of the seismogenic process leading to tectonic, induced, and triggered seismic events. The non-DC components of moment tensors are considered as an indicator of the induced seismicity. In this work, the MT inversion and decomposition is proved to be a robust tool for unveiling collapse-type events as well as the other induced events in Polish underground mining areas. The robustness and limitations of the presented method is exemplified by synthetic tests and by analyzing weak tectonic earthquakes. The spurious non-DC components of full MT solutions due to the noise and poor focal coverage are discussed. The results of the MT inversions of the human-related and tectonic earthquakes from Poland indicate this method as a useful part of the tectonic and anthropogenic seismicity discrimination workflow.

On 29 January 2019, the collapse of a mine roof resulted in a significant surface deformation and generated a tremor with a magnitude of 4.6 in Rudna Mine, Poland. This study combines the seismological and geodetic monitoring of the event. Data from local and regional seismological networks were used to estimate the mechanism of the source and the ground motion caused by the earthquake. Global Navigation Satellite System data, collected at 10 Hz, and processed as a long-term time-series of daily coordinates solutions and short-term high frequency oscillations, are in good agreement with the seismological outputs, having detected several more tremors. The range and dynamics of the deformed surface area were monitored using satellite radar techniques for slow and fast motion detection. The radar data revealed that a 2-km² area was affected in the six days after the collapse and that there was an increase in the post-event rate of subsidence.