METHOD OF DETECTING PREEXISTENT FAULTS Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC G01V9/00 G01V1/00 

FIELD: physics; geophysics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to geophysics and can be used in studying seismogenic structures. The method of detecting preexistent faults includes mounting an acoustic monitoring station in the fault zone and conducting daily monitoring of the fault zone; determining the activation time and the "calm" time; defining a monitoring profile across the investigated fault with exit into the surrounding rock; mounting an acoustic monitoring station and a second sensor on the surrounding rock; calculating spectra and energy and calculating the energy mean-square error from the energy difference; moving the second sensor to the next survey marks; conducting short-term synchronous acoustic monitoring with two sensors mounted on the first and current survey marks, and calculating amplitude spectra and acoustic emission energy based on each of the sensors on the first and current survey marks; based on the three sigma rule, selecting energy anomalies over a background; at the boundaries of the anomalies, determining the boundaries of the preexistent fault, characterised by emergence of microearthquakes and/or formation of main cracks and/or microcracks.

EFFECT: high accuracy and reliability of the obtained data.