Helmersen Grigory Petrovich

(1803 - 1885). Higher education in the University of Dorpat, where he graduated in 1825, Mr.. course with the degree of candidate. In 1828, Mr.. Gel'mersen entered the ministry of finance, and by 1835, Mr.. enlisted in the Corps of Mining Engineers. In 1830, for a special study of geology and mining, Helmersen was sent abroad, where before the end of 1832 worked in Berlin, Heidelberg, Bonn and Freiberg, and visited most of Germany, Austria and Northern Italy. A few months after returning home Helmersen was sent to the Geological Survey to the Urals and from that time began a continuous series of his travels to study the geological structure and mineral resources of our fatherland,
. Around the same time is the beginning of a scientific and educational activities Gel'mersen at the Academy of Sciences and Mining Institute, which lasted until his death. As early as the end of 1837. Helmersen defined conservative Geological Museum of the Academy of Sciences in 1844. elected as an associate in the department geognosy and paleontology, in 1847, Mr.. extraordinary and in 1850. ordinary academician. Appointed in 1838, Mr.. geognosy and professor of geology at the Institute of Mining Engineers Corps, Gel'mersen continued his teaching career at this institution until 1863. and at the same time since 1840, Mr.. was an inspector and 1849. director of the museum, and from 1865 to 1872. Director of the Mining Institute. Finally, in 1882, Mr.. Gel'mersen was appointed director of the newly established Geological Committee, the organization of which he took an active part, but sadly health soon left this post. In the course of 60 years of scientific activity Gel'mersen not been a single important issue of practical geology and mining, in the resolution of which he would not accept the participation of. Starting with the description of little-known at the time the outskirts of Russia: Urals, . Altai and the Kirgiz steppes, . - Gel'mersen soon turned to resolve the more specific tasks of Geology and Mining and linked his name with the study of coal deposits of the Urals and Moscow Basin,
. Aware of the economic importance of coal resources of Russia and the need for detailed their research and development to industrial, . Gel'mersen persistently and consistently pursued these ideas in government circles, . so well in society and among scientists, . and his work very much contributed to the emergence and subsequent rapid development of our coal industry,
. During the repeated visits of scientific study peatlands Courland Province, . brown coal deposits of Kiev, . Kherson, . Grodno and Privislyanskih provinces, . coals of Donetsk basin and Dombrowski, deposits of iron and copper ores Podmoskovny edge, . Donbas, . Olonetsk and St. Petersburg province; Bessarabian Salt Lake, . dirty volcanoes and oil sources of the Taman and Kerch peninsulas; deposits of amber in the Baltic Sea, . Peipus lake and river Narva, . Estonian Province, . Simbirskaya and Samara province, and many other mineral deposits and geologically interesting areas of European Russia,
. From the scientific works Gel'mersen most noteworthy monograph of the Devonian deposits of central Russia, and traces of the Ice Age in NW Russia and Finland. We give also a number of articles Helmersen, . relating to the physical and geological conditions of neighborhoods of St. Petersburg and the possibility of obtaining artesian water in the capital, . led to the first unit in St. Petersburg, artesian well, . his experiments on the thermal conductivity of rocks, . paleontology article about an interesting brachiopods Aulosteges varlabilis and work on the slow uplift of the Baltic Sea coast, . but mainly composed of the first geological map of European Russia, . for which he was awarded in 1842, Mr.,
. Academy of Sciences Demidov Prize. Gel'mersen was an honorary member of many Russian universities, Russian and foreign scientific societies, in memory of 50-year anniversary of Gel'mersen established an award named after him at the Academy of Sciences. Detailed information about the life and scientific work Gel'mersen cm. in the Mining Journal (1878, Volume 2), "Memoirs of the Mineralogical Society (2 ser., Volume XIV, Article AI. KцІppen), in "Proceedings of the Geological Committee" (1885, N 3), where available and a full list of his scholarly works, which number over 130. Chief among them: "Reise nach dem Ural und Kirgisensteppe in den Jahren 1833 - 34"; "Reise nach dem Altai im Jahre 1834"; "Aulosteges variabilis, . new genus of mollusks "(" Mountain Magazine ", . Volume I, . 1849); "Die Salzseen Bessarabiens und Einbruch des Schwarzen Meeres in dieselben" (1854, . "Bull,
. de l'Acad. etc. ", . Volume XVII); "Geognosticheskoe research of Devonian strip Russia from the middle of the river Western Dvina to Voronezh" (1856, . "Western Geographical Society, . Book XI); "On the slow lifting of the shores of the Baltic Sea and acted upon by waves and ice" ( "G,
. J., 1857, Volume I); "On geognosticheskom horizon and the relative antiquity of coal in the Moscow region" ( "G. J., 1861, N 2), ( "On the geological studies in the Urals in 1865" (ib., 1866, Volume IV); "Das Vorkommen und die Entstehung der Riesenkessel in Finnland" (St. Petersburg, 1867) ; "Studien uber die Wanderblocke etc." ( "Mem. de l'Acad. ", Volume XIV and XXX).