Blasting-induced seismicity in the European part of Russia

The paper focuses on the increasing contribution of blasting operations to the energy balance of seismic processes. Although the progress in blasting technologies will not produce energy outputs that exceed the energy of natural earthquakes on a global scale, it is shown that in some cases, the regional contribution to seismic energy release by blasting operations is by a few orders of magnitude higher than the energy released by natural earthquakes. In particular, this is valid for the European part of Russia, which is characterized by reasonably weak natural seismic activity. In order to identify the sources of natural seismicity over the European territory of Russia, we present the classification of the industrial blasting operations. The spatial distribution of explosive activities is presented; the consumption of explosives is estimated; and the technology of short-delay mass explosions, which might be helpful for interpretation of seismic records, is described. Zoning the territory of the European part of Russia in terms of the release rate of seismic energy and the peak local magnitudes observed during blasting operations is carried out. It is shown that the hazard level associated with blasting activities does not exceed the corresponding parameters of seismic zoning. The results presented in this paper will probably be useful for solving an important question of seismological studies: is the recorded seismic event a blast or earthquake?.