Vol 73, No 3 (2018)

Application of ground-penetrating radar in Russia has been addressed in the last decade not only in scientific publications and production reports, but also in newspaper articles and TV reports on federal and regional channels. Three directions of using ground-penetrating radar that seem promising for the authors and will be developed in the future are considered. These include georadar ray tomography, integration of ground-penetrating radar with other geophysical methods, and the use of ground-penetrating radar for solving geocryological problems. Examples of using different techniques of collection and processing of the data for solving geological and technical problems are presented.

The structural features and mechanism of the formation of the Sim trough within the Uralian Foredeep, as well as the development of the entire Karatau–Suleiman block, are considered. This wedge-shaped block was subject to lateral extrusion to the north along conjugated strike-slip fault zones under a general latitudinal compression. This factor determined the local meridional compression and latitudinal extension of the block. In the central part of the block, the latitudinal extension was compensated by gradual subsidence, which resulted in the formation of the Sim trough.

The results of chemical analyses and the data on core samples for 266 drill holes were used to identify the geochemical zoning of the Peschanka porphyry–epithermal system. A 3D model of geochemical zoning was developed using factor analysis and GIS technologies to represent the spatial distribution of elemental associations and mineral assemblages. The lateral and longitudinal zoning patterns are described. The AgPbZn: CuAuMo ratio is suggested as an indicator of vertical zoning that allows to evaluate the erosion level of porphyry copper stockworks.

In the ecological and geological respect the sand soil stratum is considered as a component of ecological–geological systems or biogeocenoses. The characteristic ecological–geological features of sand massifs are studied. Types of sand ecological–geological systems are distinguished and their structure is described.

This paper reports the results of the experimental determination of the coefficient of sorption of rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY) under conditions of acidic pH using several strains of heterotrophic bacteria (Microbacterium sp., Curtobacterium sp., Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas putida, and Bacillus pumilis) that are widespread in natural and technogenic waters of the Far East (Russia). Insignificant fractionation between heavy and light rare-earth elements, negative cerium and dysprosium anomalies, and a positive europium anomaly were revealed. The selectivity of REY biosorption by gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, as well as inertia of the biosorption process under more acidic conditions of the medium, were shown.

Diffusion and adsorption (DA) potentials are frequently the sources of self-potential (SP) anomalies, but they do not arouse practical interest in contrast to anomalies of oxidation–reduction and filtration origins. DA anomalies are common and geophysicists sometimes mistakenly consider DA anomalies as examples of filtration anomalies. Identification of DA anomalies is based on correlation of SP and apparent resistivity values along the same profiles. During the student geophysical training workshop for students of the Moscow State University (Aleksandrovka village, Kaluga Region) we obtained profiles with SP and resistivity anomalies with good correlation between them. This makes it possible to consider such SP anomalies as a result of DA processes.

The possibility of using the dolomite geochemical barrier for fine cleaning of alkaline wastewaters against fluorine was substantiated in experiments for coal-burning power plants. It was found that the residual fluorine concentration at pH 10.4–10.6 conformed to the optimum values for potable waters (0.7–0.9 mg/L), whereas the degree of fluorine removal at pH > 12.0 was at a maximum at 99.2% with less than 0.1 mg/L residual fluorine concentration. The optimum residual concentration of fluorine was obtained under the stoichiometric excess of dolomite over reactive CaO in ashes and slag wastes, which allowed calculation of the required capacity of dolomite barriers.