Listening for Trapped Miners (IMAGE) University of Utah Caption University of Utah doctoral students Weiping Cao and Yanwei Xu, along with faculty geophysicist Sherif Hanafy, gather around a seismograph that was recording seismic signals from sledgehammers banging again the walls of an abandoned copper mine near Tucson, Ariz. The researchers were testing a new method of finding the location of trapped miners after a mine collapses. Cables with geophones -- listening devices that detect seismic signals -- stretch behind the researchers above the length of a mine tunnel. Credit University of Utah. Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.