Ways to improve the reliability of interpreting the results of geophysical surveys performed for the local forecast and prospecting for solid minerals: a geodynamic approach

Background. The geodynamic approach is effectively used in regional forecasting and prospecting works. However, its application for local forecasting and prospecting for solid minerals is limited and sometimes impossible. One of the key problems of local forecasting and prospecting for minerals (solid, liquid, gaseous) is the presence of non-standard (flickering) geophysical anomalies, which complicates the interpretation of the results of geophysical surveys performed at different times at different stages of geological exploration. The article is devoted to clarifying the possibility of using geodynamic research in local forecasting and prospecting for solid minerals on the basis of attracting the latest scientific knowledge from the field of studying the spatio-temporal patterns of the development of modern geodynamic processes and their influence on the Earth’s geophysical fields. Aim. To increase the reliability of interpreting the results of geophysical surveys performed for local forecasting and prospecting for solid minerals.Materials and methods. The research was carried out on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of literature data, fund materials and the results of many years of the author’s own research in the fields of modern geodynamics and prospecting and exploration geodynamics. The initial data were based on the monitoring data of various Earth’s geophysical fields (deformation, seismic, and surface magnetic).Results. A geodynamic reason for the appearance of flickering anomalies in the Earth’s geophysical fields (in particular, magnetic) has been established, and a mechanism for their formation under the influence of modern geodynamic processes has been proposed. The possibility of using the geodynamic approach in the prospecting for solid minerals has been expanded, and ways to increasing the efficiency of local searches have been proposed.Conclusions. The research demonstrates the possibility of using geodynamic studies in local prospecting for solid minerals, which helps to increase the reliability of the results of interpretation of geophysical survey data, and, as a result, to reduce the overall financial and time costs involved with searching for mineral deposits.

VOLUMETRIC AND SPATIAL SEGMENTATION OF THE TIEN SHAN LITHOSPHERE ACCORDING TO GEOPHYSICAL DATA

This article consolidates the results of studying the deep structure of the lithosphere of the Central Tien Shan, which aimed to identify the main tectonic elements in its geophysical models. We have compared the structural and geological data with the information on the deep structure obtained by geophysical methods and from the positions of earthquake hypocenters in the study area. According to geological concepts, the Tien Shan orogenic belt is characterized by longitudinal and transverse segmentation. The boundaries of the Northern, Middle, Southern Western and Eastern segments of the Tien Shan are deep-seated fault structures. In deep faults and channels of heat and mass transfer, endogenous processes are localized. High-velocity, geoelectrical and thermal models consider such faults and channels as contrasting objects that can be referred to as indicators of these processes.Our analysis of the locations of earthquake hypocenters from NNC, KNET, CAIIG, KRNET, SOME catalogues shows that seismic events are strongly confined to the fault zones and the boundaries of large blocks. A correlation between the anomalies of geophysical fields suggests the degree of inheritance of tectonic structures and the boundaries of the main tectonic segments of the Tien Shan. To compare the crustal and upper mantle heterogeneities reflected in different geophysical fields, we have analyzed seismic tomographic sections based on volumetric seismotomographic models geoelectric and velocity sections along profiles across the main tectonic elements of the study area. The sections are used to identify the zones with relatively low (i.e. reduced) seismic wave velocities and detect the deep-seated longitudinal segmentation of the folded belt. Objects showing anomalous seismic wave velocities are found in the seismotomographic sections at all the depths under consideration. The most contrasting differences in the velocities of P- and S-waves are typical of the depths of 0-5 km and 50-65 km, showing the most clearly observed Northern, Southern and Western segments of the Tien Shan. In general, the velocities of P- and S-waves at the Northern Tien Shan are higher than those at the Middle and Southern segments. We have analyzed the distribution of geoelectric heterogeneities identified from magnetotelluric sounding data in order to determine the boundaries of the main tectonic elements that are considered as the zones of increased electrical conductivity confined to the boundaries of the fault structures. The distribution of earthquake epicenters clearly reflects the segmentation of the Tien Shan into the Northern, Middle and Southern segments and shows the Western and Eastern Tien Shan relative to the Talas-Fergana fault. Ourstudies of the crust and the upper mantle of the Tien Shan have confirmed that the abovementioned tectonic segments have differences in their deep structures Based on a comprehensive analysis of the study results, we can qualitatively identify a relationship between the distribution of the velocity and geoelectric heterogeneities in the crust and upper mantle, seismicity and the stress-strain state of the crust.

Problems of operative prediction of seismic events. The suggested way to solution

Рассматриваются результаты экспериментальных исследований, направленных на изучение характера временных изменений естественных геофизических полей (ЕГП) над залежью газа, расположенной в зоне влияния активного регионального разлома, а также выявление связи этих изменений с сейсмичностью. В результате эксперимента установлено, что процесс подготовки сейсмических событий сопровождается резким нарушением стабильности ЕГП над продуктивными блоками залежи. The results of experimental studies aimed at studying the nature of the temporary changes in natural geophysical fields (NGF) above the gas deposit located in the zone of influence of the active regional fault, as well as revealing the connection of these changes with seismicity are found. The experiment established that the seismic events preparation process is accompanied by a sharp instability NGF above productive reservoirs of the deposit.

Joint Interpolation and Representation Learning for Irregularly Sampled Satellite-Derived Geophysical Fields

Earth observation satellite missions provide invaluable global observations of geophysical processes in play in the atmosphere and the oceans. Due to sensor technologies (e.g., infrared satellite sensors), atmospheric conditions (e.g., clouds and heavy rains), and satellite orbits (e.g., polar-orbiting satellites), satellite-derived observations often involve irregular space–time sampling patterns and large missing data rates. Given the current development of learning-based schemes for earth observation, the question naturally arises whether one might learn some representation of the underlying processes as well as solve interpolation issues directly from these observation datasets. In this article, we address these issues and introduce an end-to-end neural network learning scheme, which relies on an energy-based formulation of the interpolation problem. This scheme investigates different learning-based priors for the underlying geophysical field of interest. The end-to-end learning procedure jointly solves the reconstruction of gap-free fields and the training of the considered priors. Through different case studies, including observing system simulation experiments for sea surface geophysical fields, we demonstrate the relevance of the proposed framework compared with optimal interpolation and other state-of-the-art data-driven schemes. These experiments also support the relevance of energy-based representations learned to characterize the underlying processes.

Anomalies in electromagnetic and geoacoustic emission signals

В работе рассматриваются предсейсмические аномалии сигналов электромагнитного излучения в диапазоне очень низких частот (ОНЧ) и геоакустической эмиссии, зарегистрированных на Камчатке в 2013 году. Выявлены признаки возникновения аномальных возмущений в исследуемых сигналах и особенности их проявления. Проведен совместный анализ предсейсмических аномалий в сигналах электромагнитного ОНЧ-излучения и геоакустической эмиссии методом наложения эпох. Представлены оценки вероятности возникновения таких аномалий в рассматриваемых геофизических сигналах. The paper considers pre-seismic anomalies in the signals of electromagnetic radia-tion in a very low frequency range and geoacoustic emission recorded in Kamchatka in 2013. Signs of anomaly occurrence in the studied signals and peculiarities of their manifestation were revealed. Using the epoch folding method, joint analysis of the detected pre-seismic electro-magnetic and geoacoustic anomalies was carried out. The estimates of occurrence probability for such amomalies of the considered geophysical fields are presented.

Guessing the missing half of a geophysical field with blunt extension of discrete Universal Multifractal cascades

<p>Universal Multifractals have been widely used to characterize and simulate geophysical fields extremely variable over a wide range of scales such as rainfall. Despite strong limitations, notably its non-stationnarity, discrete cascades are often used to simulate such fields. Recently, blunt cascades have been introduced in 1D and 2D to cope with this issue while remaining in the simple framework of discrete cascades. It basically consists in geometrically interpolating over moving windows the multiplicative increments at each cascade steps.</p><p> </p><p>In this paper, we first suggest an extension of this blunt cascades to space-time processes. Multifractal expected behaviour is theoretically established and numerically confirmed. In a second step, a methodology to address the common issue of guessing the missing half of a field is developed using this framework. It basically consists in reconstructing the increments of the known portion of the field, and then stochastically simulating the ones for the new portion, while ensuring the blunting the increments on the portion joining the two parts of the fields. The approach is tested with time series, maps and in a space-time framework. Initial tests with rainfall data are presented.</p><p> </p><p>Authors acknowledge the RW-Turb project (supported by the French National Research Agency - ANR-19-CE05-0022), for partial financial support.</p>