With the increase of mining depth and the expansion of mining scale, rockburst has become one of the major dynamic disasters in mining since it causes numerous casualties and accidents in China. Two special research in 2012 and 2014, discovered that the quantity of rockburst coal mines increased from 32 in 1988 to 142 in 2012, and that thousands of accidents and casualties were associated with rockbursts and their secondary disasters in the past 10 years. The distribution of rockburst coal mines was studied, and the results showed that China's rockburst coal mines are primarily distributed in four geographic bands near north latitudes 26°, 34°, 39° and 46°, and that about half of the rockburst prone coal mines is located in the Bohai gulf region. Both the current situation and main problems of rockburst prevention technology were analyzed. In order to improve the prevention and control efficiency of rockburst and its secondary disasters, coal mines were divided into three kinds as developing coal mine, general coal mine and rockburst coal mine. Risk assessment, monitoring and forecasting, prevention technology and efficiency testing, rockbursts prevention schemes of each kind of coal mine was provided.
China is the largest country in coal production and consumption in the world. According to the BP statistical review of world energy, in 2014, China had accounted for 46.0% of coal production and 50.6% of consumption of the world. In recent decades, the coal production of China increased year by year and the death rate per million ton declined rapidly, China's coal mine safety situation improved markedly. Even though, coal rockbursts occasionally happened. For example, on 5 June 2008, 3 November 2011, and 27 March 2014, three serious rockbursts accidents happened in Qianqiu coal mine of Yima Coal Industry Group, killing a total of 29 people and injuring more than 80 people. Also, on 12 January 2013, a rockburst accident happened in Wulong coal mine in Fuxin, Liaoning province, which caused 8 deaths. Furthermore, with the increase of coal mining depth and mining scale, the number of the rockburst coal mines has increased significantly. In 2014, there were 142 rockburst coal mines in China, which is 4.5 times of that in 1985. Rockburst has become one of the major dynamic disasters of Chinese coal mine.
