Shouldn't miners have GPS trackers on them?

Answer 1

Number one is, GPS would'nt work in a mine.
Number two, they already know the general
vicinity of their wherabouts but they just can't
get to them.

Answer 2

GPS doesn't work underground. It uses radio signals sent from satellites to figure out where the receiver is. They won't penetrate through rock. My hand-held GPS gets poorer reception if I walk in under the leaf canopy of trees.

An off-the-cuff thought about what might work - some sort of intercom system in the mine that lets the miners communicate with the surface. The problem would be that the wires and cables would have to have enough redundancy so that a cave-in in one spot wouldn't cut off communications. That means the mine would have to have several ways into each location. Maybe some holes bored from the surface, like the air/water/microphone shafts that they are drilling would work. I have no idea how expensive those are, however. This is why mine engineers exist.

Answer 3

I think the amount of rock between the miner and the satellites would block the signals of the GPS and would block the signals from the GPS to the surface.

TMD

Answer 4

You would think that some really smart person like a mother or the wife of a miner could come up with some kind of tracking device.
What an absolutely wonderful idea !

Answer 5

Oh My God! The same freaking thing my Mom asked when she saw the news on the mine collapse, and I couldn't agree with either of you more! Why couldn't someone with your points of view be on safety engineering boards--Kudos!