Scale Effect in a Fluid-Conducting Fault Network

Abstract

The data presented in the article consistently outlines the methodology for studying the orientation and morphogenetic characteristics of fracture systems of four scale levels including kilometers, meters, centimeters and millimeters. The Urtuisky granite massif, located in the South-Eastern Transbaikalia to the west of the Streltsovsky caldera, containing uranium deposits unique in their reserves was chosen as the object of the research. The massif is composed of Late Riphean granites and granite-gneisses, affected by dynamometamorphic and hydrothermal-metasomatic transformations in various degrees, and dissected by numerous faults with traces of fluid activity of various tectogenesis episodes. The interrelation between such geometrical parameters of fractures systems as specific density and specific length was established. It is shown that such geostructural data should be used for conceptual and numerical modeling of fluid filtration and radionuclides transport processes occurring in a three-dimensional fractured-pore space of crystalline rocks, as applied to the reconstruction and modeling of uranium ore formation and use of geological space for radioactive materials isolation.