RESPONSE OF FREE GASES IN THE KHIBINY PLUTON TO A LARGE ENGINEERING EXPLOSION

Abstract

The present paper discusses the response of the free gases filling the jointed space of the Khibiny nepheline-syenite pluton to an engineering explosion. This pluton is one of the youngest igneous structures of the Kola Peninsula. It is a hypabyssal intrusion into the Russian platform. Its tectonics are independent of those of the surrounding rocks. Practically all components of the natural gases occurring in extrusive rocks exhibit a simultaneous response to the passage of seismic waves from large engineering shots, although the duration of this response differs from component to component. These differing patterns of change in gas concentrations, result from differences in the quantities of the components entering from various reservoirs during the passage of seismic waves, and from the great inertia of some of the gases (e.g., methane homologs) and their considerably greater amenability to absorption than helium and hydrogen.