HISTORICAL NOTE

The history of the Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics is inseparably connected with the name of an outstanding scientist, Academician Yury Alexandrovich Kosygin, who made invaluable contributions to the establishment and development of the Institute. He was the founder of the tectonic scientific school that is successfully developing up to the present. Yury A. Kosygin was the first Director of the Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics from 1971 until 1988.

Later on, the Institute was headed by Ch. B. Borukaev, the Corresponding Member of the RAS, (1989-1992); N.P. Romanovskii, Professor, ScD (Geol.&Miner.) (1993-2003); S.M. Rodionov, the Corresponding Member of the RAS, (2003-2007). Since 2007 up to the present time, Alexei Nikolaevich Didenko, ScD (Geol.&Miner.) is the Director of the Institute.

In the 1970s, the major research direction of the Institute focused on the fundamental tectonic studies conducted under the leadership of Yu.A. Kosygin and his talented disciples L.M. Parfenov and V.A. Soloviev. It was the first time in the world practice they analyzed our and foreign tectonic systematics developed at that time. The conceptual bases for research in the fields of tectonics, geophysics, stratigraphy and paleovolcanology were further developed. This resulted in edition of a series of terminology reference books in demand up till now. Among them are “Tectonics of Continents and Oceans” (1976), “Shapes of Geological Bodies” (1977), “Objects of Paleovolcanology” (1977), “Hierarchy of Geological Bodies” (1977), “General Stratigraphy” (1979), “The Structure of Continents and Oceans” (1979), etc. The major regional colligations including “Tectonic Map of Precambrian Continents” (1972), “Tectonic Map of the Far East and the Adjacent Areas (on the formational basis)” scale of 1:2000000 (1982) and others were published in the same period.

During the 1980s, the priorities assigned to tectonic studies were reserved alongside with active development of geophysical investigations under the leadership of I.K. Tuezov, Yu.F. Malyshev and N.P. Romanovskii, and, also, the studies of oil-and-gas bearing areas of East Russia conducted by O.V. Ravdonikas, V.A. Kulyndyshev and V.G. Varnavsky. Map series such as “Tectonic Map of Oil-and-Gas Bearing Areas of the Far East and the Adjacent Territories” (1985), “Map of Fluid Geodynamics and Oil and Gas Content of Northeast Asia Margin” (1989) and many others were published. A large set of monographs were edited, one of which, “Tectonics” by Yu. A. Kosygin, awarded the Lenin Prize in 1988, proved to be of especially high ranking.

Since the mid-1990s, the Institute has expanded the studies in the fields of regional tectonics, deep geophysics, geodynamics, seismotectonics and seismology, matter investigation and prediction of ore and oil-and-gas deposits. A range of monographs of paramount importance were published for understanding the key issues of geology of East Asia. These include “Geology, Petrology and Ore Content of the Konder Massif” (authors team, 1994), “Geoelectrical Section of the Lithosphere and Asthenosphere of Northeast Asia and the Adjacent Areas of the Pacific” (Tuezov I.K., 1994), “Pacific Segment of the Earth: deep structure and granitoid magmatic systems” (Romanovskii N.P., 1999), “Nonlinear wave processes in geological media” (Bykov V.G., 2000), “The Cretaceous of East Russia: sedimentation, geodynamics, biodiversity and climate” (Kirillova G.L., 2000), “The Carboniferous of the Mongolo-Okhotsk Orogenic Belt” (Popeko L.I., 2000) and “Monitoring of Seismogenic Zones of the Khabarovsk Territory” (Korchagin F.G. and others, 2002).

In the recent decade, the most valuable contributions of the research scientists of our Institute have deserved a special mention.

“Tectonic Map of the Central Asian - Pacific Belts junction area scale 1:1 500 000” (2001) compiled jointly with Shenyang Institute of Geology and Mineral resources, the People’s Republic of China, has been published and highly appreciated by the Russian and Foreign geologists. The explanatory notes have been prepared and published in Russian (2005) and in English (the People’s Republic of China), (2008).

The first four volumes of a planned six-volume series “Sedimentary Basins of East Russia” have been edited, namely “Geology and Oil and Gas Content of the Okhotsk-Shantar Basin” (2002), “Geology, Geodynamics and Prospects for Oil and Gas Content of the Sedimentary Basins of the Tatar Straight” (2004), “The Middle-Amur Sedimentary Basin: geological structure, geodynamics and fuel and energy resources” (2009), and “The Bureya Sedimentary Basin: geological-geophysical characteristics, geodynamics and fuel and energy resources” (2012).
A range of prominent fundamental colligations have been issued on tectonics, deep structure and metallogeny of the East Asian Margin. The list includes “Secondary quartzites and their ore content” (Mishin L.F. and Berdnikov N.V., 2003), “Metallogeny of tin in East Russia” (Rodionov S.M., 2005), “Metallogeny of uranium in the Far East of Russia” (Goroshko M.V., Kirillov V.E. and Malyshev Yu.F., 2006), “Geodynamics, magmatism and metallogeny of East Russia: in two books” (Editor A.I. Khanchuk, 2006), “Geology and Metallogeny of the Ulkan region (The Aldan-Stanovoy Shield)” (Gurjianov V.A., 2007), “Atlas of coal types in Priamurye” (Krapiventseva V.V., 2007) and “Deep structure and metallogeny of East Asia” (Editors A.N. Didenko, Yu.F. Malyshev and B.G. Saksin, 2010).

Different rank awards were presented to the research workers of the Institute for their high achievements in the field of Earth Sciences. The Order of Honor was awarded to N.P. Romanovskii (2002) and the Order of Friendship was bestowed to Yu.F. Malyshev (2005). The honorary title of “Honored Science Worker of the Russian Federation” was conferred to G.L. Kirillova (2004). Eight research workers were granted the Honorary Diplomas of the Russian Academy of Sciences and thirty researchers and staff members received the Honorary Diplomas of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Labor Union Central Committee of the RAS (2000, 2007, 2011 and 2012). The Honorary Mentions of the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences were awarded to 11 scientists of our Institute (2000). The Jubilee Medals “For achievements in mineral prospecting and exploration of the Khabarovsk Territory” and “For mineral prospecting of the Primorsky Territory” established by the Committees for Natural Resources and Administrations of the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories were presented to 9 research workers of the Institute of Tectonics and Geophysics (2000). The Badge of Honor “70 Years of the Khabarovsk Territory” was awarded to V.A. Bormotov (2008) and the Badges of Honor “150 Years of the Argun Treaty” were bestowed to N.V. Berdnikov (2008) and V.G. Bykov (2009).

An additional point is that the research scientists of our Institute, namely N.P. Romanovskii, Yu.F. Malyshev and V.G. Varnavsky are the “Honored Science Workers of the Russian Federation”, and N.P. Romanovskii, G.L. Kirillova, Yu.F. Malyshev and A.N. Didenko are conferred the titles of Honorary Professors at Foreign Universities. The honorary Orderof the Red Bannerof Labor was granted to N.P. Romanovskii, and the Order of the Badge of Honor was bestowed to V.G. Varnavsky. Medals of the USSR and the Russian Federation were presented to the following scientists: N.P. Romanovskii, Yu.S. Bretshtein, V.G. Varnavsky, M.V. Goroshko, A.A.Shnaider, A.A. Cherepanov, V.A. Gurjianov, V.V. Krapiventseva, Yu.F. Malyshev, G.L. Kirillova and L.I. Popeko. Medals of Foreign Research Institutions were awarded to N.P. Romanovskii and A.A. Cherepanov.

Dr. A.N Didenko is the Laureate of the A.D. Arkhangelsky Prize established by the Russian Academy of Sciences (2005). The Laureates of the Yu.A. Kosygin Prize instituted by the Far Eastern Branch of the RAS are Prof. N.P. Romanovskii (2006), Prof. G.L. Kirillova and Dr. V.G. Varnavsky (2010).

In 2010, A.Yu. Peskov, a researcher of the Laboratory of Tectonics, was awarded the Prize and Diploma established by the Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory as the first-place winner at the XIIth Territorial Competition for young researchers and post-graduates.

In the year 2012, the researchers of the Institute P.A. Koltun and A.I. Tikhomirova were awarded the Diplomas and incentive bonus payments established by the Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory for the first- and third-place ranks at the XIVth Territorial Competition for young researchers and post-graduates.

In 2013, A. I. Tikhomirova, a researcher of the Laboratory of Tectonics, was awarded the Diploma as the second-place winner in the Competition "The best scientific report at the VIth Conference of Young Researchers "Oceanological Investigations" held in Vladivostok.