Regional Geology and Earth History

The Head of the Chair, Professor A.M.Nikishin

The Chair turns out graduates in such specialties as "Regional Geology", "Geological Survey and Prospecting for Mineral Deposits", "Historical and Regional Geology", "Stratigraphy". In 2003 a new interdisciplinary area of specialization "Computer Methods in Geological Investigations" was introduced.

Members of the Chair give lectures on Structural Geology and Geological Mapping; Historical Geology; Geology of Russia and CIS; Geoinformation Systems in Geology; Information Science and Application of Computer Technologies in Geology; Legal Basics, Economics and Organization of Geological Survey as well as deliver a number of specialized courses in the field of stratigraphy, sedimentology, marine geology, geology of terrestrial planets.

The Chair provides students with field training in Regional Geology and Geological Mapping (the Crimea), Geological Mapping of Magmatic Complexes (the Ural region) and a number of field specialized trainings in accordance with the Chair"s lines of investigations. Special attention is paid to environmental problems related to geology.

Most of the courses delivered by the Chair are supported with original textbooks and manuals written by members of the Chair. Among them are Geomorphology (N.P.Kostenko, 2003), Quarternary Geology ( A.F.Chistyakov, N.V.Makarova, V.I.Makarov, 2001), General Geology (N. V.Koronovsky, N.A.Yasmanov, 2002), etc.

Students at the computer center

The Chair has prepared a great number of specialists about 60 of which got their Sc.D. and 180 Ph.D. in geology. Among graduates of the Chair are outstanding scientists G.P.Leonov, Yu.G. Leonov, A.L.Knipper, M.A.Semikhatov, O.L.Mazarovich, M.M.Moskvin, E.E.Milanovsky, A.V.Kozhevnikov, D.P.Naydin, Yu.A.Zaitsev, N.V.Koronovsky.

Scientific researches are focused on the following lines of investigation:

• regional geology, with use of modern methods including biostratigraphy, palaeontology, sedimentology, palaeogeography, palaeo-oceanology; igneous geology and petrology; regional oil-and-gas prognosis, etc. The above studies are carried out in the following main regions: East European and East Siberian cratons, West Siberian and Scythian platforms, fold belts of Urals, Caucasus, Crimea, Kazakhstan, and Northeastern Asia;
• geoecology and Quarternary geology, including study and monitoring of catastrophic processes;
• remote research of the Earth's crust, with use of GIS and modern digital technologies;
• regional and global tectonics and geodynamics;
• computer modeling of geologic processes and conditions under which oil-and-gas-bearing sedimentary basins are formed;
• comparative planetology, including geological compiling of geologic maps of Mars and Venus.

Field training at the Chukot Peninsula

Members of the Chair have published a number of monographs and manuals: "Structural Geology and Geologic Mapping", "Geology of Russia and Adjacent Areas", "Geohistorical and Geodynamic Analysis of Sedimentary Basins", "Tectonic Settings: Intraplate and Marginal Plate Processes", "Geoinformation Systems in Geology", "Information Science and Application of Computer Technologies in Geology", "Legal Basics, Economics, and Organization of Geological Survey (ore prospecting and exploration)".