FSBI "VNIIOkeangeologia"
Deputy Director General (Oil and gas bearing and system geological and geophysical studies)
PhD in Geology and Mineralogy
The Department of System Geological and Geophysical Research includes highly qualified specialists who are engaged in studying the geological structure and history of the formation of the seabed of the Arctic Ocean, the Far Eastern seas of Russia, and the World Ocean in general.
The department includes a sector of geophysical support of geological mapping. In addition to participating in the research and development work of the department, the sector carries out works on the creation of advanced geophysical bases to the State Geological Map sheets (scale 1: 1 000 000 and 1: 200 000), covering the shelf seas, islands and the adjacent areas of Russia.
One of the main activities of the department and the sector is solving of scientific and production tasks in the field of studying the geological structure and history of the formation of the seabed of Russian waters and adjacent areas.
Laboratory of Marine Gravity Research
The tasks are:
- creation of coordinated digital databases of geological and geophysical data for the studied regions, primarily using the results of magnetometric and gravimetric studies;
- planning of the marine and aero geophysical (magnetometric and gravimetric) research in the Arctic Ocean, their scientific rationale and methodological support;
- complex interpretation of geological and geophysical materials accumulated in the databases of the institute;
- study of the regional features of the geological structure and the history of formation of the seabed of the Russian water areas and the World Ocean;
- resolving issues related to the geological mapping of the shelf seas of Russia and the forecast of their mineral and raw material potential;
- creation of advanced geophysical bases for sheets of the State geological map (scale 1: 1 000 000 and 1: 200 000), covering the adjacent seas, islands and the adjoining Russian land;
- participation in major national and international projects connected with the creation of generalized maps of potential fields of the Arctic Ocean (the abnormal magnetic field and gravity field) as well as their subsequent geological interpretation;
- obtaining additional geological and geophysical materials in order to strengthen the evidentiary basis of the information contained in the updated application for determining the external border of the Russian continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean;
- reviewing of the projects and reports of third parties on planned or completed research;
Key scientific achievements
The most complete Russian digital bases of magnetometer (Figure 1) and gravimetric data (Figure 2) for the Arctic Ocean were formed, their comparative analysis was carried out and the most reliable ones were identified (Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 1. Aeromagnetic knowledge of the Arctic Ocean. Shown: routes of Russian (1) and foreign (2) surveys of different years; the border of the covering region of Russian and foreign surveys (3); areas covered by the digital model of anomalous magnetic field from the CAMP-GM project [Gaina et al., 2011] (4); the Danish-Canadian survey site LOMGRAV-2009, located south of Greenland [Matzka et al., 2011] (5) and the filming areas GNPP “Aerogeophysica” in the licensed areas of Rosneft Oil Company (6).
Figure 2. The summary scheme of the Russian gravimetric knowledge of the Arctic Ocean. The generalized contours of surveys (scale of 1: 200 000 –1: 2 500 000) are shown, as well as the contours of licensed areas with surveys 2013-2015 (scale 1: 200000 - 1: 400000).
Figure 3. The generalized scheme of the most reliable Russian magnetometric materials accumulated in the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean, suitable for solving the following problems: mapping and structural-tectonic zoning (scale1: 500 000 - 1: 1 000 000) (a); mapping and zoning, as well as numeric modeling of the deep structure of the earth's crust (b), the same, presumably, in the licensed areas (c). The dashed line shows the southern boundary of the covering region of Russian and foreign surveys.
Figure 4. A generalized scheme of Russian gravimetric materials accumulated in the Arctic Ocean, as a result of their reliability they are suitable for solving the following problems: 1-mapping and structural-tectonic zoning of the bottom of the water area (scale 1: 1 000 000 - 1: 500 000) - their generalized outline (a) , aerogravimetric data (b), including the data obtained at licensed area(c); 2 - zoning and numeric modeling of the deep structure of the earth's crust - generalized outline (a), data of sea on-board surveys in licensed areas (b).
The composite digital models and the corresponding maps of the anomalous magnetic field (Figure 5) and gravity field (Figure 6) of the Arctic Ocean have been created.
Figure 5. Anomalous magnetic field of the Arctic Ocean.
Figure 6. Field of gravity of the Arctic Ocean (water area - anomalies in free air, land - Bouguer anomalies σ = 2.67 g / cm3).
a) A composite digital diagram of the structural-tectonic zoning of potential fields of the Arctic Ocean (Figure 7).
Figure 7. The composite scheme of structural-tectonic zoning of potential fields of the Arctic Ocean.
b) Maps and digital relief models of the Mohorovichich’s section, the total width of the earth’s crust and the width of its consolidated part in the Arctic Ocean (Figures 8-10);
Figure 8. Map and digital relief model of the Mokhorovichich section in the deepwater part of the Arctic Ocean.
Figure 9. Map and digital model of the total width of the earth's crust in the deepwater part of the Arctic Ocean.
Figure 10. Map and digital model of the width of the consolidated crust in the deepwater part of the Arctic Ocean.
c) Complex geophysical models of the deep structure of the Earth's crust of the Arctic Ocean, along seismic and synthetic profiles intersecting its main geostructures (examples of such models are shown in Figures 11-13);
Figure 11. Deep seismic gravity model along the line of the profile.
Figure 12. Deep seismic gravity model along the profile line.
Figure 13. Deep seismic gravity model along the line of the profile.
A series of geophysical foundations has been created for the State Geological Map (scale 1: 1 000 000), covering the adjacent seas of Russia and their continental border (Figure 14).
Figure 14. Sheets of advanced geophysical base materials on the State Geological Map (2008-2017)
Technical Support:
Computer facilities for the production of scientific and technical work (workstations, personal computers, printers and plotters, servers and auxiliary equipment to ensure the operation of the institute's local network and Internet access, etc.).
Modern commercial and original software for processing, interpreting and mapping geological and geophysical information, including: Geosoft Oasis Montaj v.9, ArcGIS v.10, SIGMA 3D.
Proposals for the implementation of contract work:
Any research work related to the planning and conducting of new onboard field-based marine and aerographic geophysical (magnetometric and gravimetric) researches, as well as the processing and interpretation of the results.