Geology. Козлова Е.П. - 50 стр.

       Between 1933 and 1936, the institute’s staff researchers carried out and
published a series of studies on the geochemistry of basic magmas, minerals of the
Ilmen Mountains, and comprehensive utilization of coals of the Chelyabinsk fields.
Also at that time, the beginnings were laid for new methods of mineral prospecting
and exploration.
       During the war with Germany in 1941-1945, the institute switched its research
focus to ways to speed up the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources for
the country’s defence needs, by turning the Ural region into the nation’s key mining
and industrial center. Between 1945 and 1955, major breakthroughs were achieved
in the geological exploration of the Urals lean iron ores, the enormous reserves of
which had been known with certainty, but were not used on a commercial scale.
       Structural patterns of many native gold deposits were clarified, along with the
potential oil and gas bearing capacity of the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains
and the adjoining areas of the West Siberian Plain. In 1955 to 1970, the institute’s
researchers worked to improve basic knowledge of principles employed in
prospecting for critical minerals. To this end, they had to retrace the history of the
terrestrial crust in the area and explore the forces that formed and distributed iron
ores, bauxites, copper pyrites and gold in the local crust.
       In hydrogeology, the most significant breakthrough was made in developing a
method to protect bauxite mines from surface and subterranean water in the
Middle Urals and hydrochemical principles of prospecting for copper pyrite deposits
in the Southern Urals.
       The principal problem, in which the institute’s efforts under Alexander
Peive, a full member of the Academy, and Svyatoslav Ivanov, a corresponding
member, were focused in 1970 to 1975, was developing a novel geotectonic and
petrological theory to promote an understanding of the Urals’ metallogeny. The
researchers advanced a hypothesis and made a geodynamic tectonic map, the first in
the world, some 20 to 30 years before any projects of this kind were unveiled in
developed countries.
       Alexander Dymkin, a corresponding member of the Academy, and Yuri
Poltavets, working for the institute in 1975 to 1980, came up with a polygenic
theory to explain the formation of iron, copper pyrite and complex metal ores, which
allowed geologists to apply uncoventional prospecting techniques. They
demonstrated stage by stage formation of ore deposits and the possibility of such
deposits being discovered at depths of 1,000 to 1,500 m.
       In the years that followed, the institute’s scientists have discovered new type
of gold-silver-tellurium deposits, succeeded in proving the main ore body of the
Kempersai landmass, which contains unique reserves of chromium ores, to be the
nation’s largest repository of osmium, iridium, and ruthenium, contained in
recoverable form ( up to 30 percent ) in sulfides, sulfoarsenides, arsenides and solid
solutions ( over a dozen mineral kinds and varieties ).
         In the 1980s, the institute’s researchers discovered, for the first time here,
widespread occurrence of karst suffosive processes in the eastern Urals. The resulting
holes and subsidence cause deformation and collapse of buildings, power dams, and

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