Active faults under permafrost conditions in the highland part of Gorny Altai (South Chuya and Kubadru fault zones) and the Lena River delta (Primorsky Fault Zone) were studied using the electrical resistivity tomography technique. The method proved to be effective in identifying active fault zones to depths up to the first hundreds of meters under permafrost conditions. However, the presence of ice-rich rocks with a resistivity greater than 100 kΩ·m limits its application because of the screening effect of the insulating unit. The main criterion for identifying active faults in geoelectric sections is the existence of subvertical zones of reduced electrical resistivity against the background of high-resistivity permafrost rocks. This concerns both the young seismic ruptures formed during the 27 September 2003 Chuya earthquake (Ms = 7.3) in the South Chuya Fault Zone and the older Holocene primary seismic deformations in the zones of the Kubadru and Primorsky faults. At the same time, the electrical resistivity values in the zones of active faults and seismic ruptures are too high to assume their saturation with free water. The decrease in electrical resistivity in such zones relative to the host permafrost frame may be due to (1) intensive fracturing of rocks and sediments; (2) occurrence of finely grated material in the core and damage fault zones, on particles of which adsorbed unfrozen water is concentrated; (3) residual thermal anomalies in the case of modern fault activations, so that negative temperatures have already been restored, but the process of frozen strata aggradation is not complete yet; (4) saturation of the geologic section with sand–silty material as a result of liquefaction and fluidization processes during earthquakes. The revealed regularities can be used not only to confirm the zones of morphologically distinctive segments of active faults but also to search for their buried segments in the permafrost areas typical of seismically active highland and Arctic regions in Russia and worldwide.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
May 01, 2025
GEOELECTRIC PATTERNS OF ACTIVE FAULTS IN PERMAFROST REGIONS (example of Russian highland and Arctic regions) Available to Purchase
E.V. Deev;
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia✉
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for other works by this author on:
V.V. Olenchenko;
V.V. Olenchenko
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Search for other works by this author on:
A.A. Duchkov;
A.A. Duchkov
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Search for other works by this author on:
A.A. Zaplavnova;
A.A. Zaplavnova
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Search for other works by this author on:
O.V. Safronov
O.V. Safronov
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Search for other works by this author on:
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
V.V. Olenchenko
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
A.A. Duchkov
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
A.A. Zaplavnova
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
O.V. Safronov
1
A.A.Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia2
Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia✉
E-mail: [email protected]
Publisher: Novovsibirsk State University
Received:
15 Sep 2024
Accepted:
26 Nov 2024
First Online:
03 Apr 2025
Online ISSN: 1878-030X
Print ISSN: 1068-7971
© 2025, Novosibirsk State University
Novosibirsk State University
Russ. Geol. Geophys. (2025) 66 (5): 630–643.
Article history
Received:
15 Sep 2024
Accepted:
26 Nov 2024
First Online:
03 Apr 2025
FUNDING
The study of active faults in Gorny Altai was supported by the Government Contract of A.A. Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (projects FWZZ-2022-0024 and FWZZ-2022-0001). The study in the Lena River delta was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 23-17-00237).
- OpenGeoSci
-
Tools
- View This Citation
- Add to Citation Manager for
CitationE.V. Deev, V.V. Olenchenko, A.A. Duchkov, A.A. Zaplavnova, O.V. Safronov; GEOELECTRIC PATTERNS OF ACTIVE FAULTS IN PERMAFROST REGIONS (example of Russian highland and Arctic regions). Russ. Geol. Geophys. 2025;; 66 (5): 630–643. doi: https://doi.org/10.2113/RGG20244808
Download citation file:
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Email alerts
Index Terms/Descriptors
- active faults
- airborne methods
- Altai Mountains
- Altai Russian Federation
- Asia
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- digital elevation models
- electrical methods
- fault scarps
- fault zones
- faults
- geophysical methods
- geophysical profiles
- geophysical surveys
- Gorny Altai
- inverse problem
- Lena Delta
- permafrost
- remote sensing
- resistivity
- Russian Federation
- surveys
- tomography
- Yakutia Russian Federation
- Chagan River
- Primorsky Fault
- Chuya earthquake 2003
- unmanned aerial vehicles
- Kubadru Fault
- Chuya Fault
Latitude & Longitude
Citing articles via
Related Articles
Inversion of magnetotelluric data in fault zones of Gorny Altai based on a three-dimensional model
Russian Geology and Geophysics
Fault structures and their geoelectric parameters in the epicentral zone of the 27 September 2003 Chuya earthquake ( Gorny Altai ) from resistivity data
Russian Geology and Geophysics
DEEP STRUCTURE OF THE CHUYA BASIN ( Gorny Altai ) AS IMAGED BY TEM SOUNDINGS
Russian Geology and Geophysics
Frozen mounds in Gorny Altai: geophysical and geochemical studies
Russian Geology and Geophysics
Related Book Content
Accretionary growth and crust formation in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and comparison with the Arabian-Nubian shield
4-D Framework of Continental Crust
Right-lateral active faulting between southern Baja California and the Pacific plate: The Tosco-Abreojos fault
Geology of México: Celebrating the Centenary of the Geological Society of México
The Kyaukkyan Fault, Myanmar
Myanmar: Geology, Resources and Tectonics
Faulting within the San Juan–southern Gulf Islands Archipelagos, upper plate deformation of the Cascadia subduction complex
From Continental Shelf to Slope: Mapping the Oceanic Realm