Volume 72, Nº 1 (2017)

According to the forecasts of the World Health Organization, 70% of the world’s population will have lived in large and small cities by 2050. This means that more than two-thirds of the planet’s population will become a part of new natural-technical formation, that is, geobiotechnoecosystems. Such ecosystems are characterized by profound changes in natural properties during active human impacts and by acquiring new qualities. The changes manifest themselves in all ecological functions of the terrestrial spheres: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere, including a change in the geophysical (energetic) potential as well. The presented material can be considered as a basis for the formation of Geophysical Urban Ecology, which is a new scientific and practical field.

The Bitak Formation is located in Crimea in the area of the city of Simferopol. It is mainly represented by weakly sorted conglomerates. The lithological description of the conglomerates is given. New data on the age of detrital zircons are presented. The possible age of the Bitak Formation is discussed. It is shown that the Bitak Formation is older than Late Bajocian volcanic rocks and younger than deposits of the Tauric Formation and its analogs of the same age. The Bitak Formation was accumulated in a pull-apart basin. Several basins of such a type are found in Crimea. It is thought that the Bitak basin was located at the base of the Middle Jurassic island-arc complex of Crimea.

The Longmen Shan fault zone is located at the particular boundary between the Triassic Songpan-Ganzi orogen of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and the stable Sichuan basin of the Yangtze platform. There are four major active faults and three tectonic nappes in this region. According to an analysis of neotectonics and historical earthquakes, the Longmen Shan fault zone presents a high level of seismic hazard. The rupture system that hosted the Wenchuan earthquake is characterized by thrust and dextral strike-slip movement.

Decomposition of samples with a poorly soluble complex matrix for the analysis of the trace-element composition with high-resolution inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry was designed and tested. Analytical and method problems of the selection and preparation of samples are described and their solutions are proposed. The correctness of sample preparation was verified using analysis of standard rock samples.

The results of a geoelectrical survey of the Mshentsy area located in Tver oblast near the Moscow–St. Petersburg express road, which is under construction, are presented. In order to obtain information about the geological composition of the area and the processes that occur in it (karst and water flow zones ), we performed our measurements using the electrical resistivity imaging, self potential survey, water electrical conductivity and temperature measurements. Using petrophysical resistivity modeling of the rocks, taking the geoelectric data into account, we completed a lithology differentiation of the section and calculated the hydraulic conductivity values of the rocks. By interpreting this data, we found a wide distribution of fractured carbonates that compose the lower part of the section of the studied territory. The conclusion was drawn that the Mshentsy area belongs to the intense local karst zone.

This paper presents the results of the development of a digital logging system and its implementation into everyday practice, at a well of Moscow State University. Complex data interpretation in relation to problems of hydrogeology is discussed. New developments, such as a video well-logging device and a highfrequency induction probe (HFIL) for plastic-cased wells, are used in the system in addition to the obligatory logging types (GL, RL, SP, CL, and temperature measurement).

The composition of rocks of the Bazhenov and Abalak formations in Western Siberia is described. Correlations of the concentrations of the major and minor components in rocks with the concentrations of minor elements and organic material are shown. Study of the concentration of minor elements allows us to determine the conditions of sedimentation: redox potential, hydrogen sulfide contamination, and the source of sedimentary material. The results show that rocks of the Bazhenov Formation were formed under the conditions of low fluxes of clastic material, a reduced environment, and a periodically occurring hydrogen sulfide mode.