Radon emanation as an indicator of the intensity of Intergeospheric interactions at the Earth’s crust-atmosphere interface

Abstract

The results of measurements of the volumetric activity of subsurface radon Rare given for several sections of the Earth’s crust located within the central part of the East European Platform. The influence of tectonic structures on the spatial zonality of radon emanation and the intensity of its temporal variations is shown. The temporal variations in radon emanation are characterized by periodicity with periods of approximately a day, as well as of 4, 14, and 29 days, and, as correlation analysis shows, they are determined by the cyclic recurrence of tidal deformations and by cyclonic processes in the atmosphere. The high correlation of the mean values of the volumetric activity of subsurface radon with the value of atmospheric pressure is established. The dependence of the volumetric activity of subsurface radon and its temporal variations on the depth within the range of depths 0.8–11.5 m is determined. As a result of laboratory experiments, the nonlinear nature of the dependence of radon emanation on the frequency of vibration action is established. For granites, the intensity of radon emanation is maximal at frequencies of 16 and 32 Hz. The results of complex measurements of the microseismic background and the volumetric activity of subsurface radon carried out in the region of the Nelidovo-Ryazan tectonic structure demonstrate the high correlation between the volumetric activity of subsurface radon and the relative amplitude of the quasi-monochromatic component of the microseismic background with a peak frequency of 16.5 Hz.