Chapter 8 



THE USE OF NEW METHODS OF ELECTRICAL 

 EXPLORATION IN SIBERIA 



A. M. Alekseev, M. N. Berdichevskii and A. M. Zagarmistr 



The effectiveness of using the method of vertical electrical probing in a 

 number of regions of Siberia and the Far East was shown in the 1930s 

 and 1940's. Electrical studies of the territory of the Western Siberian low- 

 lands, in the regions of Eastern Siberia (especially at Lake Baikal), and on 

 Sakhalin made it possible to obtain valuable geological results. Since then 

 however, electro -prospecting work in Siberia has not received much deve- 

 lopment, since swampy conditions and wooded nature of the territory have 

 presented considerable difficulties in carrying out vertical electrical probing. 

 The necessity of using long feed lines (12-20 km), and power generators, 

 (10-20 kW) have considerably limited the possibilities of using vertical 

 electrical probing in accessible places. Because of this, in some geophysical 

 institutes in Siberia, electrical exploration has been excluded entirely from 

 the exploratory work for oil and gas. The exclusion of electrical exploration 

 from the geophysical studies has necessitated the solution of prospecting 

 and detailed problems of surveying almost exclusively by seismological 

 methods, which are more difficult and expensive in comparison with other 

 methods of petroleum geophysics. 



The development in the VNII Geofizika of new methods (the method 

 of two-way electrical probing and the method of telluric currents), which 

 considerably extend the possibihties of electrical exploration, led to the 

 organization in 1955-56 of widespread experimental electrical explora- 

 tion in Siberia. The aim of this work was to determine the geological effective- 

 ness of new methods under geoelectrical conditions of the Western Sibe- 

 rian lowlands and to develop a method of measurement in inaccessible re- 

 gions. 



Experimental work was carried out by parties from the VNII Geofizika 

 (under the direction of V. P. Bordovskii and Yu. N. Popov) on the North 

 West depression of the Kolyvan-Tomsk fold belt and within the hmits of 

 the Tobol'sk and the Vagai-Ishim tectonic zones, and also in the region of 

 .the Berezovka gas deposits. This work showed the desirability for carrying 



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