This list of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Earth scientist
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...
s includes the notable
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
s,
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
s,
oceanographer
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...
s,
meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
s,
ecologist
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
s and other representatives of
Earth sciences
Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...
from the
Russian Federation
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
and other predecessor states of Russia.
Alphabetical list
__NOTOC__
A
*
Vladimir Abazarov
Vladimir Alekseevich Abazarov (russian: Владимир Алексеевич Абазаров; 6 May 1930 – 13 May 2003) was an eminent Soviet Union, Soviet geologist.
He took part in discovering of large and unique oil fields in Western Si ...
,
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
, discoverer of
Samotlor oil field
Samotlor Field is the largest oil field of Russia and the sixth largest in the world, owned and operated by Rosneft. The field is located at Lake Samotlor in Nizhnevartovsk district, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Oblast. It covers . The ...
, the largest Russian oil field
*
Dmitry Anuchin
Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin (Russian: Дми́трий Никола́евич Ану́чин; 27 August 1843 – 4 June 1923) was a Russian Empire anthropologist, ethnographist, archaeologist, and geographer. He was a member of the Russian G ...
, anthropologist and geographer, coined the term "
anthroposphere
The anthroposphere (sometimes also referred as the technosphere) is that part of the environment that is made or modified by humans for use in human activities and human habitats. It is one of the Earth's spheres. The term was first used by ninetee ...
", determined the location of the
Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
river source
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
T ...
*
Andrey Arkhangelsky
Andrey Dmitriyevich Arkhangelsky (russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Арха́нгельский) (December 8, 1879 – June 16, 1940) was a Russian geologist. He was a professor at Moscow State University. He was Corresponding Memb ...
, geologist
B
*
Karl Baer
Karl Ernst Ritter von Baer Edler von Huthorn ( – ) was a Baltic German scientist and explorer. Baer was a naturalist, biologist, geologist, meteorologist, geographer, and is considered a, or the, founding father of embryology. He was a m ...
, naturalist, formulated the geological
Baer's law on
river erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dist ...
, co-founder of the
Russian Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...
*
Valeri Barsukov
Valeri Leonidovich Barsukov (Валерий Леонидович Барсуков) (March 14, 1928 – July 22, 1992) was a Soviet geologist. He worked in comparative planetology and the geochemistry of space. He was director of the V. I. Vernad ...
, geologist
*
Vladimir Belousov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Belousov (russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Белоу́сов) ( in Moscow – December 25, 1990) was an Earth scientist in the Soviet Union, and a prominent advocate of alternatives to the theorie ...
, geologist
*
Lev Berg
Lev Semyonovich Berg, also known as Leo S. Berg (russian: Лев Семёнович Берг; 14 March 1876 – 24 December 1950) was a leading Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist who served as President of the Soviet Geographical So ...
, determined the depth of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
n lakes, including
Balkhash Lake
Lake Balkhash ( kk, Балқаш көлі, ''Balqaş kóli'', ; russian: озеро Балхаш, ozero Balkhash) is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, one of the largest lakes in Asia and the 15th largest in the world. It is located in the ea ...
and
Issyk Kul
Issyk-Kul (also Ysyk-Köl, ky, Ысык-Көл, lit=warm lake, translit=Ysyk-Köl, , zh, 伊塞克湖) is an endorheic lake (i.e., without outflow) in the Northern Tian Shan mountains in Eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the seventh-deepest lake in th ...
, a head of the
Soviet Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...
*
Yuri Bilibin, geologist, studied
placer geology and organized expeditions that discovered gold deposits in Eastern Siberia
*
Mariya Borodayevskaya, geologist
*
Leonid Brekhovskikh
Leonid Maksimovich Brekhovskikh (6 May 1917 – 15 January 2005; russian: Леони́д Макси́мович Бреховски́х) was a Soviet and Russian scientist known for his work in acoustical and physical oceanography.
Early life and ...
, founder of modern
acoustical oceanography, discovered the
deep sound channel, the first to observe
mesoscale ocean eddies
In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current (water), current created when the fluid is in a Turbulence, turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream ...
C
*
Feodosy Chernyshov,
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
*
Ivan Chersky
Jan Stanisław Franciszek Czerski (russian: Иван Дементьевич Черский; 3 May 1845, in Swolna – 25 June 1892, nr. Kolyma) was a Polish paleontologist, osteologist, geologist, geographer and explorer of Siberia.
He was ex ...
, paleontologist, geologist and explorer of
Siberia, explained the origin of
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
, pioneered the
geomorphological
Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...
evolution theory
*
Pyotr Chikhachyov
Pyotr Alexandrovich Chikhachyov, last name also spelled Chikhachev or Tchihatchev (russian: link=no, Пётр Алекса́ндрович Чихачёв; 23 December 1808 – 13 October 1890) was a Russian naturalist and geologist who was admitt ...
, early geographer and geologist of
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
, discovered
Kuznetsk Coal Basin
The Kuznetsk Basin (russian: Кузнецкий угольный бассейн, Кузбасс; often abbreviated as Kuzbass or Kuzbas) in southwestern Siberia, Russia, is one of the largest coal mining areas in Russia, covering an area of aroun ...
D
*
Vasily Dokuchaev, founder of
soil science, created the first
soil classification, determined the
five factors for soil formation
E
*
Raul–Yuri Ervier, geologist, organizer and head of wide-ranging geological explorations that discovered of the largest oil and gas fields in Western Siberia
F
*
Alexander Fersman, a founder of
geochemistry, discovered
copper in
Monchegorsk,
apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of OH−, F− and Cl− ions, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common e ...
s in
Khibiny,
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
G
*
Grigory Gamburtsev, Soviet
seismologist
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
, invented a number of seismological methods and devices
*
Boris Golitsyn, inventor of
electromagnetic seismograph
A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The output ...
, the president of International Association of
Seismology
*
Maria Glazovskaya, soil scientist and agrochemist.
*
Konstantin Glinka, influential Russian soil scientist.

*
Ivan Gubkin, founder of the
Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas
K
*
Stanislav Kalesnik,
geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...
*
Alexander Karpinsky, geologist and mineralogist, the first President of the
Soviet Academy of Sciences
*
Alexander Keyserling, naturalist, a founder of Russian geology
*
Maria Klenova, a founder of
marine geology, polar explorer
*
Wladimir Köppen,
meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
and author of the commonly used
Köppen climate classification
*
Nikolai Korzhenevskiy, geographer
*
Stepan Krasheninnikov, geographer, the first Russian naturalist, made the first scientific description of
Kamchatka
*
Peter Kropotkin
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activis ...
, geographer
*
Alexander Kruber, founder of Russian
karstology
*
Nikolai Kudryavtsev, author of modern
abiogenic theory The abiogenic petroleum origin is a fringe science which proposes that most of earth's petroleum and natural gas deposits were formed inorganically. Mainstream theories about the formation of hydrocarbons on earth point to an origin from the decompo ...
for origin of
petroleum, coordinated oil and gas exploration in
Siberia
*
Leonid Kulik
Leonid Alekseyevich Kulik (Russian: Леонид Алексеевич Кулик; 19 August 1883 – 14 or 24 April 1942) was a Soviet mineralogist who is noted for his research into meteorites.
He was born in Dorpat, (now Tartu, Tartu County, ...
, meteorite researcher, the first to study
Tunguska event
L
*
Dmitry Lachinov,
meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
*
Vladimir Larin
Vladimir Ivanovich Larin (russian: Владимир Иванович Ларин; 15 May 1948 – 18 October 1995)
was a Russi ...
, geologist
*
Irina Levshakova, paleontologist and geologist
*
Victor Linetsky
Victor Pylypovych Linetsky (russian: Виктор Филипович Линецкий, uk, Віктор Пилипович Лінецький; 31 January 1901 – Yekaterinodar, Kuban Region, Southern Russia – 19xx Lviv, Ukraine) was a R ...
, geologist
*
Mikhail Lomonosov
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (; russian: Михаил (Михайло) Васильевич Ломоносов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ , a=Ru-Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov.ogg; – ) was a Russian Empire, Russian polymath, s ...
, polymath, suggested the
organic
Organic may refer to:
* Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity
* Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ
Chemistry
* Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...
origin of
soil,
peat,
coal,
petroleum and
amber; forerunner of the
continental drift theory, pioneer researcher of
atmospheric electricity
M
*
Alexander Middendorf
Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (russian: Алекса́ндр Фёдорович Ми́ддендорф; tr. ; 18 August 1815 – 24 January 1894) was a zoologist and explorer of Baltic German and Estonian extraction. He is known for his ex ...
, zoologist and explorer, founder of
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
science, determined the southern border of permafrost
*
Pavel Molchanov, meteorologist inventor of
radiosonde
*
Andrei Monin, meteorologist
*
Dmitrii Mushketov
Dmitry Ivanovich Mushketov (russian: Дми́трий Ива́нович Мушкетов; – 18 February 1938) was a Russian Empire and Soviet geologist and paleontologist, one of the victims of the Great Terror.
Biography
Dmitry Mushketov was ...
, geologist
*
Ivan Mushketov, made the first geological map of
Turkestan
*
Konstantin K. Markov, geomorphologist
O
*
Vladimir Obruchev, geologist and explorer, author of the comprehensive ''Geology of
Siberia'' and two popular
science fiction novels, ''
Plutonia'' and ''
Sannikov Land''
*
Alexander Obukhov, meteorologist
P
*
Fyodor Panayev, meteorologist
*
Vasiliy Podshibyakin, geologist, discoverer of
Urengoy gas field
*
Pavel Polian, geographer
*
Mikhail Pomortsev, meteorologist, inventor of the
nephoscope
*
Aleksandr Popov,
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
researcher
*
Vladimir Porfiriev, geologist
R
*
Voin Rimsky-Korsakov
Voin Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov ( rus, Воин Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, p=ˈvoɪn ɐnˈdrʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ˈrʲimskʲɪj ˈkorsəkəf, a=Ru-Voin Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov.ogg; 1822–1871) was a Russian navigator, hydrog ...
, geographer
*
Vladimir Rusanov, geologist
*
Vasiliy E. Ruzhentsev, geologist
S
*
Farman Salmanov, discoverer of giant
oil fields in
West Siberia
*
Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, explorer of the
Tian Shan Mountains, for 40 years the head of the
Russian Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...
, prominent statistician and organiser of the first
Russian Empire Census
The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897 ( pre-reform Russian: ) was the first and only nation-wide census performed in the Russian Empire (the Grand Duchy of Finland was excluded). It recorded demographic data as ...
*
Nikolay Shatsky, made a comprehensive
tectonic map of
North Eurasia, introduced
Riphean and
Baikalian
The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago.
It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is prec ...
geological
stages
*
Pyotr Shirshov, polar explorer, founder of the
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology The Shirshov Institute of Oceanology ( P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO) RAN, russian: Федеральное государственное бюджетное учреждение науки Институт океанологии имен ...
, proved that there is life in high latitudes of the
Arctic Ocean
*
Yuly Shokalsky, first head of the
Soviet Geographical Society
The Russian Geographical Society (russian: Ру́сское географи́ческое о́бщество «РГО»), or RGO, is a learned society based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It promotes geography, exploration and nature protection wi ...
, coined the term "
World Ocean"
*
Sergey Smirnov, geologist
*
Boris Sokolov, geologist
*
Kozma Spassky-Avtonomov Kozma Fyodorovich Spassky-Avtonomov (russian: Козьма Фёдорович Спасский-Автономов) was born in 1807, in Zakharovka, now Lipetsk Oblast and died in 1890. He was a Russian researcher of the region of Baku, then a city ...
, meteorologist
T
*
Mikhail Tetyaev, geologist
*
Andrey Tikhonov, mathematician and inventor of
magnetotellurics in geology
*
Aleksey Tillo, made the first correct
hypsometric map of
European Russia
European Russia (russian: Европейская Россия, russian: европейская часть России, label=none) is the western and most populated part of Russia. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the cou ...
, coined the term "
Central Russian Upland
The Central Russian Upland (also Central Upland and East European Upland) is an upland area of the East European Plain and is an undulating plateau with an average elevation of . Its highest peak is measured at . The southeastern portion of the u ...
", measured the lengths of the main
Russian rivers
U
*
Nikolay Urvantsev, geologist
*
Mikhail Usov, geologist
*
Tatyana Ustinova, geographer
V
*
Nikolai Vavilov, geographer
*
Vladimir Vernadsky, philosopher and geologist, a founder of
geochemistry,
biogeochemistry and
radiogeology, creator of
noosphere
The noosphere (alternate spelling noösphere) is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the Russian-Ukrainian Soviet biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, and the French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernads ...
theory, popularized the term "
biosphere" and developed biosphere theory
Z
*
Sergey Zimov, geophysicist specialising in arctic and subarctic ecology, known for advocating the theory that human overhunting of large herbivores during the Pleistocene caused Siberia's grassland-steppe ecosystem to disappear, for raising awareness of the roles permafrost and thermokarst lakes play in the global carbon cycle, and for creating
Pleistocene Park
*
Yevdokim Zyablovskiy, geographer
See also
*
List of geographers
*
List of geologists
*
List of meteorologists
*
List of Russian physicians and psychologists
*
List of Russian explorers
*
List of Russian biologists
*
List of Russian scientists
*
Science and technology in Russia
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Russian Earth Scientists
Earth scientists
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface ...
Russian earth scientists