Scale Effect in a Fluid-Conducting Fault Network

Abstract

This paper successively reports on a methodology for investigating the orientation and morphogenetic characteristics of fault systems at four scale levels: kilometers, meters, centimeters, and millimeters. The research object is the Urtui granite massif in southeastern Transbaikalia west of the Streltsovska caldera, incorporating unique uranium deposits. The massif is composed of Late Riphean granites and granite gneisses variably affected by dynamometamorphic and hydrothermal–metasomatic alterations and is crosscut by numerous faults with traces of fluid activity from various tectogenesis episodes. The relationship between the geometric parameters of the fault systems, such as specific density and specific length, has been established. It is advisable to use these geostructural data for conceptual and numerical modeling of fluid filtration and radionuclide transport processes in the three-dimensional fractured–pore space of crystalline rocks, for reconstructing and modeling uranium ore formation, and using the geological space for the isolation of radioactive materials.