Geophysical methods of the earth crust exploration

The Head of the Geophysical Department, Professor V.K. Khmelevskoy

The Chair trains students in the following areas of specialization: "General Geophysics" (with getting the Bachelor"s degree, 4-year study); "Gravity and Magnetic Prospecting", "Electrical Prospecting", "Hydrogeological and Engineering Geological Geophysics" (with getting the diploma of Specialist, 5-year study) as well as "Geophysics ("Hydrogeological and Engineering Geological Geophysics"), "Geophysical Methods of Investigations of the Earth"s Crust" ("Gravity, Magnetic and Electrical Prospecting"), "Ecological (Environmental) Geophysics" (with getting the Master"s degree, 6-year study).

Field training sessions are conducted in the Crimea, near a town of Zvenigorod, in the Kaluga region.

A wide range of courses is provided not only by the Chair"s staff but also by Professors and leading research workers from the Institute of Earth"s Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, All-Russian Research Institute in the field of Geophysics and Institute of Geoecology of the Russia Academy of Sciences as well as specialists from other geophysical institutions. The Chair offers about 50 core and specialized courses for students and those who wish to get a Master"s degree, including "Introduction to Geophysics", "Geophysics for Geologists", "Gravimetrical Prospecting", "Magnetic Prospecting", "Electrical Prospecting", "Ill-Conditioned Tasks in Geophysics", "Petrophysics", Nuclear Geophysics", etc.

The Head of the Chair, Professor A.A.Bulychev

Members of the Chair have published numerous books and textbooks, including "Explorational Geophysics" (V.V.Fedynsky), "Electrical Prospecting" (A.I.Zaborovsky), "Geophysical Methods of Exploration" (A.A.Ogilvy), "The Basics of Engineering Geophysics" (A.A.Ogilvy), "Gravimetrical Studies of the Oceanic Earth"s Crust" (A.G.Ginanov), "Marine Gravity Prospecting" (A.G.Ginanov), "The Basic Course in Electrical Prospecting" (V.K.Khmelevskoy), "A Brief Course in Explorational Geophysics" (V.K.Khmelevskoy), "Environmental Investigation at Oil Enterprises" (V.A.Shevnin, I.N.Modin).

The main areas of research within the Chair are related to development and interpretation of data of electrical and gravity and magnetic methods on land and in sea areas and their applications to deep, structural, oil-and-gas, engeneering-geological, hydrological, man-caused and environmental investigations. The members of the Chair have participated in dozens of expeditions, including marine ones, all over Russia as well as abroad.

Since 1949 marine gravimagnetic surveying has been based on regular voyages to the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, the White, the Barents, the Caspian, the Black, the Mediterranean, the Okhot, the Bering Seas and the Antarctic area. At the same time computer-based techniques for gravimagnetic data and satellite altimetry data processing and interpreting were developed. Structural maps of the Earth"s crust and lithosphere for vast areas of oceans were made.

Associate Professor L.A.Zolotaya with students at the Crimean geophysical field training

The scientific school of deep geoelectrics develops the theory and implements data interpreting in the field of magnetotelluric and electromagnetic soundings for heterogeneous media. Deep (up to 100 km) models for several geotraverses and profiles in the Moscow syncline, at the Northern Caucasus, in the Volga region, the Tyan-Shan Mountains, across the Baikal rift, in Yakutia, in the Juan de Fuco subduction zone, etc. Such cross-section are usually used as a basis for searching natural resources. Magnetotelluric techniques were the first to be used to detect and explore deep electromagnetic anomalies, where the world"s greatest Urengoy hydrocarbon deposit had been discovered later by seismics and drilling.

The scientific school of engineering and environmental geophysics is engaged in theoretical studies and data interpreting technique for several geophysical methods, as well as in methodology, technique and practical application of geophysics to solving hydrogeological, engineering-geological, geotechnical, archaeological and environmental problems. The techniques developed were actively used in numerous regions of Russia (the European Russia, Moscow and Donetsk coal basins, the Crimea, the Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Western Siberia, Magadan Region, Chukotka), and abroad (Cyprus, Turkey, Mexico, Madagascar, France, Poland, etc.).

At the Aleksandrov geophysical field training