Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (russian: Курская магнитная аномалия) is a territory rich in

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

s located within the

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

Belgorod Belgorod ( rus, Белгород, p=ˈbʲeɫɡərət) is a city and the administrative center of Belgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Seversky Donets River north of the border with Ukraine. Population: Demographics The population of Be ...

, and

Voronezh Voronezh ( rus, links=no, Воро́неж, p=vɐˈronʲɪʂ}) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the ...

oblasts in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, and constitutes a significant part of the Central Chernozyom Region. The Kursk Magnetic Anomaly is recognized as the largest

magnetic anomaly In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying ...

on Earth. The Kursk

Magnetic Anomaly In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying ...

(KMA) was first discovered in 1773 by the Russian astronomer and academic Pyotr Inokhodtsev while preparing the maps of the General Land Survey (russian: Генеральное межевание) at the behest of the Russian government. It was not investigated again until 1874 when I. N. Smirnov conducted the first geomagnetic survey of European Russia. In 1883, N. D. Pilchikov, an assistant professor at

Kharkiv University The Kharkiv University or Karazin University ( uk, Каразінський університет), or officially V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ( uk, Харківський національний університет імені ...

, conducted a series of 71 observations of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly. These revealed a much larger extent than previously measured and for the first time attributed the anomaly to the presence of iron ore. In 1884, on the basis of this discovery, Pilchikov was awarded the silver medal of the Russian Geographical Society. Serious investigation of the economic potential of the anomaly occurred under the leadership of

Ivan Gubkin Ivan Mikhailovich Gubkin (russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Гу́бкин; – 21 April 1939) was a Soviet and Russian geologist and president of the 1937 International Geological Congress in Moscow. He was a petroleum geologist particu ...

in 1920–1925, originally based upon the possibilities for oil. Rich ores were discovered in the region of the anomaly about 1931. The ores are spread over an area estimated at and are

magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula Fe2+Fe3+2O4. It is one of the oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. With the ...

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

s disseminated throughout metamorphic rocks and

Pre-Cambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

granitoids. Surveyed ore reserves of

ferrous In chemistry, the adjective Ferrous indicates a compound that contains iron(II), meaning iron in its +2 oxidation state, possibly as the divalent cation Fe2+. It is opposed to "ferric" or iron(III), meaning iron in its +3 oxidation state, such a ...

quartzite are presently estimated at more than of 32–37% Fe and more than of 52–66% Fe. The

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

method is used to mine this ore at the Stoylenskoye, Lebedinskoye, and Mikhailovskoye deposits.

Underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

methods are used for the Korobkovskoye deposit.

References

{{coord, 51, 15, 13, N, 37, 40, 10, E, display=title Exploration geophysics Geology of European Russia Geography of Russia Magnetic anomalies

See also

References