GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017

Paper No. 121-5
Presentation Time: 2:30 PM

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


HARP, Dylan R.1, STAUFFER, Philip H.2, VISWANATHAN, Hari3, BOURRET, Michelle2, KWICKLIS, Edward Michael4, ANDERSON, Dale1 and BRADLEY, Christopher R.5, (1)Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mailstop T003, Los Alamos, NM 87545, (2)EES-16, Earth & Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mailstop T003, Los Alamos, NM 87545, (3)Earth and Environmental Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS T003, Los Alamos, NM 87545, (4)Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mailstop T003, EES-16, Los Alamos, NM 87545, (5)Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, dharp@lanl.gov

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.