Definition of crater cuts

These cuts consist of one or several fully charged holes in which blasting is carried out towards the face of the tunnel, i.e., toward a free surface at right angles to the holes. These represent in principle a completely new type of cut and make use of the crater effect that is obtained in blasting a single hole at a free rock surface. The possibility of a uniform enlargement can be counted on. This means that if the scale is enlarged so that the diameter and depth of hole and length of the charge are all doubled, e.g., a crater of double the depth will be obtained. The number of holes can be increased instead of increasing the diameter of the holes.

Ref: Langefors