November 26, 2018

MPI Dissertation Council meeting

The Dissertation Council D003.025.01 at MPI authorized by the Russian Ministry of Higher Education and Science's Attestation Committee to award degrees in geography, geology & mineralogy, and engineering held its meeting on November 21-22, 2018 for public defense of four dissertations: Galina Osadchaya "Permafrost Landscapes of the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra as a Basis for Environmental Management", Artem Naberezhny "Bearing Capacity of Ribbed Slurried Piles in Permafrost", Valery Semenov "Subsurface Temperature Distribution and Permafrost in the Vilyui Basin" and Pavel Zabolotnik "Ground Temperature Regime at Large Heat Power Generation Facilities on Permafrost: Yakutsk CHP Plant". The PhD research of Valery Semenov (MPI) focused on disequilibrium permafrost in the Vilyui Basin, a geological province in western Yakutia rich in hydrocarbon and mineral deposits. His study indicates that permafrost thicknesses vary over a wide range, from 45 to 820 m, generally decreasing from west to east due to geothermal heat flow increasing in the same direction, as well as to paleoenvironmental conditions. Significant variations in the depth of the permafrost base, up to 200 m, were found to occur even within small structural units of the Vilyui Basin. Pavel Zabolotnik focused his PhD research on the Yakutsk CPP Plant as a case study to explore the thermal effect of large heat generating buildings on permafrost, as well as the efficiency of various engineering solutions to keep the foundation frozen.

The texts of the dissertations (in Russian) can be found here.

Map showing depths of the permafrost base in the Vilyui Basin.
(1) Exploration borehole area and its number; (2) permafrost boundaries; (3) permafrost region I; (4) permafrost region II; (5) permafrost region III; 6 to 13 – permafrost thicknesses: (6) <200 m; (7) 200 to 300 m; (8) 300 to 400 m; (9) 400 to 500 m; (10) 500 to 600 m; (11) 600 to 700 m; (12) 700 to 800 m; (13) > 800 m; (14) Thermal cross-sections.