This thesis presents a Time-Between-Events (TBE) methodology for enhancing the interpretation of source mechanisms causing populations of microseismic data. The study was done using several datasets prepared by operators of mine seismic systems. These datasets, varying in size from 38 to 16324 events, represent groups of events in close proximity to each other. They may have been identified based on their nearness to individual seismic sources (faults, dykes, etc.) or mining structures (stopes, abutments, pillars, orepasses, etc.).

Plotting sets of data collected over periods of time using a frequency-magnitude distribution is common with both earthquake and mining seismology. This TBE technique simply makes use of the inter-event times and b-values (slopes of the best-fit lines on the frequency-magnitude charts), from the same set of data. Four distinct patterns in TBE versus Event Magnitude have been found which suggest that there are constant seismic sources causing populations of data, or whether the smaller and larger events within the population represent varying seismic sources. Different rates of events, identified as TBE-rates in this study, may suggest whether the events are blast induced, or not.

Interpretations of TBE results are combined with other methods that have been proven successful for inferring seismic source including magnitude-time history analysis, frequency-magnitude charts, S-wave to P-wave energy ratios, diurnal and phasor charts. A "Seismic Mechanism Assessment Worksheet" brings all of the collected information together to assist in the interpretation.

Every dataset in the study is identified based on their composition of shear, fracture or indeterminate events. This was necessary to understand that there may be one dominant seismic source creating datasets, or varying blends of any of these three sources. In differing sizes of datasets, examples are found to show that the b-values and TBE-rates will be the same only when these populations represent similar source compositions.