Nikolai Mikhailovich Strakhov

Born Apr. 2 (15), 1900, in the city of Bolkhov, in what is now Orel Oblast; died July 13, 1978, in Moscow. Soviet geologist and geochemist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1953; corresponding member, 1946).

Strakhov graduated from Moscow University in 1928, and he worked at the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR from 1934. He is one of the founders of the modern science of lithology. Continuing the work of N. I. Andrusov and A. D. Arkhangel’skii, Strakhov developed and consistently applied the comparative lithologic method in explaining the processes governing the formation of ancient sedimentary deposits. His research dealt mainly with the genesis of recent deposits in the Black and Caspian seas, in inland lakes (Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash), and in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. He corroborated the idea of the four types of lithogenesis and examined the evolution of these types in the earth’s history. In addition, he developed the theories of diagenesis, halmyrogenesis, and humid ore formation, and he studied pyroschists, salts, iron and manganese ores, and calcareous dolomites.

Strakhov has contributed greatly to the development of the geochemistry of sedimentary rocks. He studied the forms of migration and the laws governing the distribution of Fe, Mn, P, V, and other chemical elements both in rivers, seas, and oceans existing today and in basins of ancient bodies of water. He also established the influence of the physicogeographic interaction of drainage basins and of impounds with outlets on the distribution of elements in processes of sediment formation.

Strakhov was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1948), the Lenin Prize (1961), three Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the A. P. Karpinskii Gold Medal (1967), and various other medals.