YEKATERINBURG, October 11. /TASS/. Scientists of the Urals State Mining University within a few coming years will work on innovative oil and gas equipment, working in the Arctic districts, the University's acting head Alexei Dushin told a news conference at the TASS Urals information center.
"We have been working on Arctic projects for more than half a century already, and some of the projects focus on the oil and gas equipment, on peculiarities of using natural resources, studies of cryolithzones (part of the uppermost layer of the earth's crust, for which typical are a freezing temperature of soil and underground ice - TASS), as well as on environmental activities and possible consequences from development of deposits," he said. "For us, this is a promising direction, and we can see a high interest from the industries."
"Our plans are to keep the focus on practice and high standards of education, which are characteristic for the mining science," he continued. "Our graduates should have deep and wide understanding of processes in the nature, as on their qualifications would depend safety of work and even human lives."
TASS wrote earlier about the University's scientists, who have invented a seismic system for scanning of mountainous layers to spot hazardous objects. This system could be used in the Arctic, too. The data from sensors, installed at certain sites, goes for processing to the University, and the scientists there may see on-line whether there are tension spots in the mountains, and the forecast could be extended one day ahead. The center's specialists monitor the situation remotely and give timely recommendations as to how to correct works at those areas.
According to the University's press service, the system was tested successfully at construction of tunnels in Sochi during preparations for hosting the 2014 Olympic Games there, as well as at construction of tunnels in China. Besides, the system now monitors situations at a few coal mines in Kuzbass. The accuracy of forecasted risks in mountainous areas is at the level of not less than 70%.