"They have a little more hope ...," Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guymon told the Deseret Morning News after leaving a meeting with the families Thursday morning.

The families have been getting briefings by the son of one of the trapped miners and the brother of another, who have accompanied mine owner Bob Murray into the mine.

"If the concussion from the earthquake and subsequent seismic activity killed the miners, that is in the Lord's hands. We can't control that," Murray said. "But the recovery of this mine and the recovery of these miners is my responsibility."

An interpreter has been brought in to assist in communications between mine officials and the Spanish-speaking families. They have also been getting counsel from spiritual leaders.

"The families of the miners have asked me to relay to you their gratitude for your concern, compassion and prayers," Father Donald Hope of the Mission San Rafael Catholic Church in Huntington said in a statement Thursday. "As you can understand, the three families with which we are in contact are exhausted but are trying to keep hope alive."

Bishop John Wester of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City celebrated Mass in Huntington Thursday. Hundreds attended, including Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

"Everyone came together as one," Huntsman said.

Quakes/investigations

The miners were about eight hours into a 12-hour shift when the mine shaft collapsed early Monday morning, trapping the six men.

Murray insists that an earthquake caused the collapse. Scientists said their evidence points to the mine collapse as the seismic event that registered 3.9 on the Richter scale. The University of California at Berkeley released a report Thursday after analyzing the data.

"The results of our analysis show that the recorded seismic waves are consistent with an underground collapse," it said.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations said it has placed more seismometers around the Crandall Canyon Mine, including one directly on top of the mine. As many as seven of the machines will be placed around the mine.

"It will accurately locate any further seismic activity as the mine continues to settle, or natural seismicity or any mine-related seismicity," U. spokesman Lee Seigel said.

Utah's coal country is known for daily seismic events, whether they are natural earthquakes or "bumps" caused by pressure shifts inside mine shafts. On Thursday, a 1.1 magnitude event was recorded at 6:59 a.m. about 14 miles northeast of Price near some mines.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has said it will conduct an investigation into what caused the mine to collapse but will wait to begin that probe until the rescue effort is over.

Such investigations typically are very thorough, involving extensive evidence and interviews with miners and mine officials. MSHA investigators will examine equipment, conditions, photographs of the mine and the accident site.

"If they have to remove evidence from the scene additionally, they will do that as well," said MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere in Washington, D.C.

Preliminary interviews with the four miners who managed to escape before the collapse may have already begun, she said.

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