Geological Society of America

121 D1. Recent Advances in Hydrogeology

Monday, 23 October 2017
1:30 PM - 3:45 PM
Room 615/616/617

ANALYSIS OF ENHANCED GAS TRANSPORT IN EXPLOSION DAMAGED ROCK DUE TO BAROMETRIC PRESSURE VARIATIONS

Paper number: 121-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM

Authors

Dylan R. Harp Presenting Author
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Philip H. Stauffer
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Hari Viswanathan
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Suzanne Bourret
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Edward Michael Kwicklis
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Dale Anderson
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Christopher R. Bradley
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM

Abstract

Rock damaged by explosions can provide pathways for barometric pressure variations to reach the location of detonation. Fractured rock subjected to barometric pressure variations can result in 10⁵ times more gas transport than due to diffusive processes alone. Therefore, barometric pressure variations are often one of the main drivers of gas transport from explosions in fractured rock, a process that is referred to as barometric pumping. Barometric pressure variations are complex, multi-frequency signals influenced by latitude, weather, elevation, lunar phase, time of year, and diurnal and semi-diurnal earth tides. However, our results indicate that it is often a subset of the pressure frequencies that lead to the vast majority of transport while the majority of frequencies result in minor or even insignificant transport. Identifying the dominant pressure frequencies for transport allow us to more simply and effectively characterize the potential for gas transport to the surface at different geographic locations. We will present barometric pressure decomposition analyses on gas transport in explosion-damaged rock.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-293956

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