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Events/Disaster · 2014

Soma coal mine disaster

Disaster, May 2014, Turkey.

What happened

A fire and explosion at the Eynez mine in Soma killed 301 miners, mostly by carbon monoxide poisoning. It is the worst mining disaster in Turkish history. Trials ran for years.1,2

Why it matters

Trials and appeals continued for a decade, and a case against public officials opened in May 2024.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. South Bulli Colliery gas outburst

    The regulator uses it as a case study of gas outbursts at the coalface.3,4

  2. Westray mine explosion

    The inquiry report is titled A Predictable Path to Disaster.5,6

  3. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.7

  4. Sago Mine disaster

    Sago Mine disaster. Wikidata records 12 deaths.8

  5. Upper Big Branch Mine disaster

    Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. Wikidata records 29 deaths.9

  6. Glencore completes merger with Xstrata

    The merger joined a large trading house with a large mining group.10,11

  7. Soma mine disaster

    Soma mine disaster. Wikidata records 301 deaths.12

  8. Amasra coal mine explosion, Turkey

    Wikidata records 42 deaths.13

Open the full timeline

Where next

Events

An example ofCourrieres coal mine disasterSoma's 301 deaths in 2014 were mostly from carbon monoxide. Courrieres killed 1,099.1

Sources

  1. Soma mining disaster: a ten-year fight for justice and accountability Transparency International
  2. Soma (item Q13124930), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. 1991 South Bulli Colliery Outburst case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  4. Bulli (item Q4996904), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. The Westray Story: A Predictable Path to Disaster, executive summary Government of Nova Scotia
  6. Westray Mine (item Q3314812), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. Blaenavon Industrial Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  8. Wikidata item Q7399333 (Sago Mine disaster)
  9. Wikidata item Q7898494 (Upper Big Branch Mine disaster)
  10. Glencore timeline
  11. Baar (item Q64087), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Wikidata item Q16869476 (Soma mine disaster)
  13. Wikidata item Q114670156 (Amasra mine explosion)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: The Big Hole by Rudolph Botha, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pictures: Mijnramp Bois du Caizier, Marcinelle, België. Schacht, Rossem, Wim van / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).