An Explosive Experience at Missouri S&T

This issue of IEEE Potentials highlights “elemental engineering,” focusing on earth, wind, water, and fire, which makes the explosives engineering program at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) a perfect fit for this theme. First, over 97% of commercial explosives used in the United States are to break rock, according to the United States Geological Survey. In 2007, 85.5% of explosives were used in the mining industry, 11.5% in civil excavation, and the remaining 3% in everything else combined (the third and fourth users being forestry and the oil patch), with similar numbers reported in 2012.

Explosives are used in mining to break and remove rock so that raw materials can be won from the earth to support our civilization. Everything from coal (to fuel our power stat ions), to copper (to transmit electricity), to gold and rare earth metals (for high-tech electronic products) is taken from the ground, using over 6 billion lb of explosives each year in the United States alone.