Periglacial Landforms and Fluid Dynamics in the Permafrost Domain: A Case from the Taz Peninsula, West Siberia

• Main Authors: Belonosov, A. (Author), Buddo, I. (Author), Kraev, G. (Author), Kurchatova, A. (Author), Misyurkeeva, N. (Author), Nezhdanov, A. (Author), Shelokhov, I. (Author), Smirnov, A. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Chimneys; common depth point method; Common depth point method; Common depth points; fluid migration; Fluid migration; Gas chimney; gas chimneys; Gas emission crater; gas emission craters; Gas emissions; Gas hazards; Gas industry; natural gas; Natural gas; Permafrost; permafrost thickness; Permafrost thickness; Petroleum prospecting; Pingo; pingos; Point methods; shallow transient electromagnetic method; Shallow transient electromagnetic method; taliks; Taliks; Transient analysis; Transient electromagnetic methods; upper part of the section; Upper part of the section
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Most of the developing oil and gas fields in Russia are located in Arctic regions and constructed on permafrost, where recent environmental changes cause multiple hazards for their infrastructure. The blowing‐up of pingos, resulting in the formation of gas emission craters, is one of the disastrous processes associated both with these external changes and, likely, with deep sources of hydrocarbons. We traced the channels of fluid migration which link a gas features reservoirs with periglacial phenomena associated with such craters with the set of geophysical methods, including common depth point and shallow transient electromagnetic methods, on an area of a prospected gas field. We found correlated vertical anomalies of acoustic coherence and electrical resistivity associated with gas chimneys in the upper 500–600 m of the section. The thickness of the ice‐bonded permafrost acting as a seal for fluids decreased in the chimney zone, forming 25–50 m deep pockets in the permafrost base. Three pingos out of six were located above chimneys in the study area of 200 km2. Two lakes with parapets typical for craters were found. We conclude that the combination of applied methods is efficacious in terms of identifying this type of hazard and locating potentially hazardous objects in the given territory. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.