Fracture domain of granite based on orientation analysis and its relation to water conducting fractures; An Example from the "-500m access/research gallery-North" of the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory

Shimada, Koji   ; Niwa, Masakazu   ; Takeuchi, Ryuji  ; Amano, Kenji  

Domain analysis of granite on the basis of fracture orientation in the 100 m scale by means of structural geologic techniques such as stereographic projection, Strike Versus Traverse Distance diagram and Sequential Linked Median (SLIME) plot revealed relationship between distribution of water conducting fractures and fracture orientations. This attempt used fracture data taken from the "-500m access/research gallery-North" of the Mizunami Underground Research Laboratory. Improvement of the SLIME plot based on running median of span 3 shows water conducting fractures are concentrated at domain boundaries. A location of one of the large kinks corresponds to a region of fractures with geochemical high connectivity from deeper parts.