ГЕОЭКОЛОГИЯ


ИНЖЕНЕРНАЯ ГЕОЛОГИЯ. ГИДРОГЕОЛОГИЯ. ГЕОКРИОЛОГИЯ

Geoekologiya, 2021, Vol. 2, P. 3-16

GAS-SATURATED FROZEN SOILS IN THE PERMAFROST ZONE  

A. N. Khimenkov1,*, A. V. Koshurnikov2,**, D. O. Sergeev1, P. A. Sobolev2  

1 Sergeev Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulanskii per., 13, str. 2, Moscow, 101000 Russia
2 Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, Moscow, 119991 Russia
*E-mail: a_khimenkov@mail.ru
**E-mail: msu-geophysics@mail.ru

The article focuses on the processes of formation and destruction of zones with increased gas content in frozen soils. Currently, the theoretical basis for this topic has not been developed enough, although its theoretical and practical importance has sharply increased during the last decade. Significantly grown importance is explained by gas emission during drilling of many wells in frozen soils, a huge volume of greenhouse gases emitted in the Arctic region and the discoveries of previously unknown processes in permafrost zone, such as the formation of gas-blow-out craters. This article is the first to show that gas-saturated zones in seasonally frozen or permafrost formations have all signs of geosystems: they have localization space, boundaries, morphology, individual structure and properties, formation history, and hierarchy. The main structural elements of geosystems in gas-saturated frozen soils are also considered in this article. Five types of such geosystems were identified: the first type for seasonally thawed or frozen layer, the second one is structural, the third is related to geological structures, the fourth type is related to decomposition of gas hydrates in natural conditions, and the fifth is the technogenic type (due to thermal or mechanical impact on hydrate-saturated and gas-saturated permafrost).

Keywords: frozen soil, gas funnels, gas filtration, fluids, geosystems of gas-saturated soils, gas hydrates dissociation, pressured gas filtration, stages of development 

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