#6. Utah Mine Collapse
For days afterward, mine owner Robert Murray insisted that it had been an
earthquake — and indeed, seismologists confirmed that the earth had moved
near Huntington, Utah, on Aug. 6. But the quake didn't cause the Crandall
Canyon coal mine to collapse, trapping six miners inside. The quake
was the collapse, as the mine, its walls weakened by decades of coal
removal, gave way. Ten days later, three rescuers were killed by a second
collapse, and shortly after that, attempts to reach the trapped men by
drilling down from above were called off. The mine was sealed in
October.