Centenary of the Birth of V.A. Obruchev, Soviet Geologist, Geographer, Traveller, and Pioneer in Permafrost Research

Résumé

Vladimir Afanas'evich Obruchev, who was born on October 10, 1863 in the village of Klepenino in the upper Volga region, was an outstanding natural scientist, who made great contributions to the exploration of Asia. His father was in the military service and often transferred with his family from one province to another. For some time they lived in Lithuania where Obruchev completed his high school education in Vilnius in 1881 and then passed the entrance examinations of both the Mining and the Technological institutes in Petersburg. He chose the Mining Institute and completed his studies there in 1886. ... For his great achievements the Academy of Sciences of the USSR named Obruchev a corresponding member of the Academy in 1921, and an active member in 1929. From this time on he was working in the Academy of Sciences and for 3 years, beginning in 1929, he was director of the Geological Institute. During World War II he was Academician-secretary of the Department of Geological and Geographical Sciences and as such led the scientific research of all academic institutes in this field. Obruchev was among the first to advocate the organization of a special committee for the study of permafrost. He was president of this committee from 1930 to 1939. In this year he became director of the Permafrost Institute, which now bears his name, and held that position for the rest of his life. ... He was also deeply involved in the exploration of northern regions. While analysing the geology of the greater part of Asia north of the Arctic Circle he concluded that during Quaternary times two glacial periods had occurred there, and that a thick ice sheet had covered not only the arctic zone but had extended south to 60°N. He established that at the beginning of the Quaternary dry land occupied the present Kara Sea area and that glaciers extended from there to the south between the Urals and the Taymyr Peninsula, which were also covered by a continental ice sheet at that time. Obruchev thought that the present Greenland ice cap and other glaciers of the North American islands, the glaciers of Spitsbergen, Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa, Novaya Zemlya, and Severnaya Zemlya are the remnants of ice caps and glaciers of the Ice Ages. Further evidence for the glaciations is the existence of fossil ice, which Obruchev discussed in detail in several of his works. His research concerning the Ice Ages helped to establish the southern limits of glaciation and the present distribution of permafrost. The very large amount of geological and geographical information collected by Obruchev in northern Asia has very great value in permafrost research, especially in the preparation of long-term climatic predictions and in the determination of the degree of climatic amelioration in the Arctic. He did not isolate permafrost from other natural phenomena but studied it in relation to the geology of the region. ... Obruchev died on June 19, 1956 and was buried in the Novodevich' cemetery in Moscow.