land Article Tracking Deformation Processes at the Legnica Glogow Copper District (Poland) by Satellite InSAR—II: Zelazny˙ Most Tailings Dam Paolo Mazzanti 1,2 , Benedetta Antonielli 1,* , Alessandra Sciortino 3, Stefano Scancella 2 and Francesca Bozzano 1,2 1 Department of Earth Sciences & CERI Research Center on Geological Risks, Sapienza University of Rome, P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy;
[email protected] (P.M.);
[email protected] (F.B.) 2 NHAZCA S.r.l., Via Vittorio Bachelet, 12, 00185 Rome, Italy;
[email protected] 3 Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering (DICEAA), University of L’Aquila, Via Giovanni Gronchi, 18, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The failures of tailings dams have a major negative impact on the economy, surrounding properties, and people’s lives, and therefore the monitoring of these facilities is crucial to mitigate the risk of failure, but this can be challenging due to their size and inaccessibility. In this work, the deformation processes at Zelazny˙ Most tailings dam (Poland) were analyzed using satellite Ad- Citation: Mazzanti, P.; Antonielli, B.; vanced Differential SAR Interferometry (A-DInSAR) from October 2014 to April 2019, showing that Sciortino, A.; Scancella, S.; Bozzano, F. the dam is affected by both settlements (with a maximum rate of 30 mm/yr), and horizontal sliding Tracking Deformation Processes at in radial direction with respect to the ponds. The load of the tailings is pushing the dam forward the Legnica Glogow Copper District along the glacio-tectonic shear planes located at depth, in the Pliocene clays, causing horizontal (Poland) by Satellite InSAR—II: displacements at a rate up to 30 mm/yr, which could lead to a passive failure of the dam.