Том 94, № 10 (2024)

The article provides the most urgent tasks of geophysics to ensure technological sovereignty of the Russian Federation in modern conditions. A brief overview of the role of applied geophysics in the development of the economy, ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country since the beginning of the XX century is given and historical parallels with the modern stage are drawn. It is stated that geophysical research has repeatedly been essential for solving the most important tasks of the country’s development. Currently the most important task of applied geophysics is to provide all industries and, first of all, high–tech industries with the necessary mineral resources. The most important directions of geophysical research are substantiated including the search and exploration of economically efficient deposits of strategic mineral raw materials, increasing the efficiency of production of hydrocarbons and solid minerals based on geophysical monitoring and ensuring geophysical safety. It is noted that the achievement of the relevant goals is impossible without ensuring the technological sovereignty of the geophysical industry itself, which means the need to create modern domestic geophysical instruments, equipment, software and technologies. Some main directions of development of geophysical technologies are outlined. It is stated that in order to make a technological breakthrough in the geophysical industry it is necessary to combine the efforts of scientists of various professions: geophysicists, geologists, physicists and mathematicians.

Providing the extractive industry with new technologies to maintain the levels of oil and gas production planned in the strategy of the Russian Federation is the most important task. First of all, an increase in profitable reserves must be ensured; this goal can be achieved both through geological exploration and through the capabilities of “digital transformation” and the formatting of decision-making systems. A field controlled by artificial intelligence is a new reality. At the same time, the main task of AI is not to reduce jobs or completely replace humans in the field, but to provide a systematic, objective approach to decision-making based on physics and mathematics, and not on the personal experience of an individual. Currently, the main planning tool in the oil and gas industry is a geological and hydrodynamic model. Recently, thanks to an increase in design capacity, the industry has made an evolutionary leap in this direction and is transitioning to integrated modeling that combines both the underground and surface parts of the field. The future is neural network technologies, combined with classical methods into a single digital environment for optimizing all processes, from reservoir to processing and sales of products. In the new paradigm, the process of development management at different stages of field development requires a radical transformation of both the tools used for this and changes in governing documents. To meet the ever-accelerating pace of progress, timely updating of the legislative framework is required, development of regulations for integrated modeling, including all elements of research and production, from seismic exploration to field development; in addition, each stage of field development requires its own requirements for the quality and volume of initial information, in accordance with the new production paradigm.

The article discusses the achievements and problems of geological exploration in the Arctic offshore areas. The authors of the article obtained fundamentally new knowledge about the prospects for oil and gas content of the sedimentary cover and heterogeneous basement, as well as gas saturation in the free and hydrated states in the upper part of sedimentary deposits. A complex of new technologies has been developed, including 4D seismic exploration in near real time conditions. For the first time, seismic refraction data were used to map the distribution of frozen and thawed ground on the shelf of the seas of Eastern Siberia. A fundamentally new justification has been given for the gas-dynamic genesis of the formation of giant craters in the Arctic, which implies the formation of gas-saturated cavities in the masses of ground ice under the influence of endogenous processes. According to remote Yamal Peninsula, as well as coastal parts of the Kara Sea, 6022 zones of intense (explosive) degassing with the formation of craters (pockmarks) were revealed. For the first time, according to RS data from space, large mud-volcanic edifices with pronounced craters were discovered at the bottom of the Arctic thermokarst lakes. Causes and consequences of catastrophic man-made gas blowouts and self-ignition during drilling of exploratory wells at a number of fields in the Arctic were investigated.

The presented review lists the main achievements and publications of Russian scientists in the field of the history of chemistry. The leading researches, major works, scientific centers are designated, the names of outstanding figures of science are named. The importance of the creation of the RAS Commission on the History of Chemistry in 2023 is emphasized, the main directions of its activities, specific tasks and the first results obtained are indicated.

The article is devoted to the analysis of trends in two components of population change – its reproduction and migration in small and medium-sized cities in the north-west of European Russia (using the example of cities in the Vologda and Novgorod regions). Following the demographic compression of rural settlements and their disappearance, a similar process affect the small and medium-sized cities of the ancient cultural, historical and economic centers of Russia. The causes and consequences of socio-economic deformations of traditional Russian territories identified. It is proposed to reconsider key approaches to the development of the urban settlement network in the region, measures of stabilization of the population and labor resources, improvement of the age structure, and increasing the migration attractiveness of small and medium-sized cities.

The article introduces the milestones of the life of academician V.P. Makeev (1924−1985), an outstanding scientist and designer, founder of the national school of marine rocket engineering, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of the Lenin and three State Prizes of the USSR, who made a great contribution to the creation of the nuclear missile shield of our country: For 22 years Makeev headed the Engineering Design Bureau in the city of Miasse, Chelyabinsk region. Over the years, three generations of submarine-launched ballistic missiles and strategic naval missile systems have been created here, which served as the basis for the formation and deployment of one of the main components of the country’s strategic nuclear forces. The research and development on thin-walled shells made of composite materials carried out under the leadership and with the participation of Makeev was recognized by the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences as one of the most important achievements in the field of mechanics in 1981−1985. V.P. Makeev made a decisive contribution to the education and development of young specialists of high scientific and technical level. In preparing the article, the author used the memories of his colleagues.