THE INSTITUTE OF THE EARTH’S CRUST MUSEUM TODAY

Abstract

In the past five years, the Institute of the Earth’s Crust Museum has considerably increased its exhibition space and the collection of objects. The Museum documents the history of the Institute since 1949. Its three rooms contain original artefacts, books and reports by prominent scientists and a rich variety of rocks collected by IEC staff, including a collection of new minerals discovered by IEC researchers and approved by the Commission for New Minerals Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC) of the International Mineralogical Association. Displayed are a unique collection of kimberlites from Yakutia which was given to the Museum by D.I. Savrasov, a founder of the Kimberlites Museum in the city of Mirny, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a collection of hydrogenous minerals from many countries of the world which was given to the Museum by Dr. B.I. Pisarsky, a set of minerals collected by Dr. Yu.V. Komarov who founded the Museum and given to the Museum by his widow L.V. Komarova, and other sets of minerals. A special exhibition is devoted to the 100th Anniversary of Prof. M.M. Odintsov, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who was a prominent Russian geologist, worked in Siberia and headed the IEC from 1954 to 1976. To commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the Museum founder Dr. Yu.V. Komarov, the first museum room was renovated and now includes an exhibition devoted to researches of Dr. Yu.V. Komarov. A new display is a collection of minerals from Bulgaria. The Museum is regularly visited by high school and post graduate students to whom the museum objects and collections of minerals serve as useful physical materials in studies of geology and mineralogy, and in such cases the Institute of the Earth’s Crust Museum operates as an educational outreach.