Dnieper-Donets Rift
The Dnieper-Donets Rift or Pripyat-Dnieper-Donets Rift is an east-west running rift in the Sarmatian Craton that developed and was most active in the Paleozoic. The rift extends from the Caspian Depression in Russia to northern Ukraine passing by the Donbas region. The rift separates the Voronizh Massif in the north from the Ukrainian Shield in south.
The Dniepr-Donets Paleorift was the site of Devonian magmatic activity that begun in Late Frasnian and peaked in the Famennian caused by a mantle plume. Extensional tectonics were also most active during the Famennian.
There have been suggestions that the Dnepr-Donets Paleorift is related to the coeval Kola Alkaline Province.
The technical and economic analysis showed that on the basis of
the DDD oil and gas wells it is possible to construct geothermal power plants with depths
of drilling or disclosing wells up to 3 – 4.5 km. At such depths, the 90% thermal potential
of geothermal waters in productive oil and gas horizons of сarboniferous deposits does not
exceed 108 ºC. In this case, the replacement of organic fuel and electricity by the heat of
geothermal waters and rocks is much more profitable for providing heat and heating. Two wells from the depth of сarboniferous deposits can provide 0.4 – 4.5 MW of
thermal energy.
