Coal and gas outburst mechanism of the “Three Soft” coal seam in western Henan

Based on the particularities of gas outbursts, i.e., low gas bearing capacity and low gas pressure in the “Three Soft” coal seam in western Henan, we applied the theories of plate tectonics and regional structural evolution to investigate the mechanism of this seam and its impact on the coal seam gas formation. Our investigation revealed that coal and gas outbursts are distributed in a strip in a NW direction, with a number of high-penetration mines scattered towards the south side and low-gas mines largely located on the north side. We analyzed the statistics of 38 gas explosions and the rock-coal sturdiness number coefficient f of 167 sampling sites in the region and found the gas outburst mechanism that features a “low indicator outburst phenomenon”. The mechanism is characterized by structural coal as its core, a low gas bearing capacity, low gas pressure and sturdiness coefficient f mostly less than 0.3. Our research results provide a theoretical foundation for effective control of gas disasters.