Georgii Fedorovich Mirchink

Born Apr. 13, 1889, in Moscow; died Apr. 10, 1942, in Saratov. Soviet geologist. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1940). A founder of the Soviet school of investigators of the Quaternary period.

Mirchink graduated from the natural science division of the physics and mathematics faculty at Moscow University in 1912. Between 1918 and 1930 he was a professor at Moscow University and the Moscow Academy of Mines. In 1930 he became a professor at the Moscow Institute of Geological Research. Mirchink was the first to use a comprehensive method in studying the phenomena of the Quaternary (Anthropogenic) period and to outline principles of subdividing them. In 1923 he compiled the first map of the Quaternary beds of the European part of the USSR. He made a detailed study of the geological conditions of the locations of numerous Paleolithic sites and substantiated a schema of the stratigraphy and distribution of Quaternary beds in Europe. He wrote the textbook Geology of Quaternary Beds (1934) and was a consultant for major hydroengineering structures (the Moscow-Volga Canal) and the Moscow Metro (subway). Mirchink was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.