Background
Chernyshov was born on September 24, 1856, in Kyiv, Ukraine. His parents were teachers in secondary schools in Kyiv.
2014
Naval Cadet Corps, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
In 1872 Chernyshyov entered the Cadet Corps of the Naval College in St. Petersburg.
Феодосий Чернышёв
geologist paleontologist scientist
Chernyshov was born on September 24, 1856, in Kyiv, Ukraine. His parents were teachers in secondary schools in Kyiv.
Chernyshyov attended the First Kiev Gymnasium and in 1872 entered the Cadet Corps of the Naval College in St. Petersburg. Shortly before he was due to graduate from the Cadet Corps, he left the Naval College for the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, from which he graduated in 1880.
In March 1882, Chernyshyov was selected as a junior geologist on the recently organized Geological Committee of Russia. He was assigned to make a geological survey of the territory on the western slope of the southern Urals. At that time material and financial support for field geologists was modest, and the conditions of work in unpopulated forest and mountain areas were very difficult. Chernyshyov traveled for weeks with one worker on one horse, and a scanty supply of food. He conducted research on the Urals and central Russia. His fieldwork was accompanied by laboratory study of a wide range of geological and paleontological materials. Before Chernyshyov’s research, the upper Silurian deposits of the Urals were known and noted on the geological map of the range. His investigations showed that these deposits included layers with fauna characteristic of the lower and middle Devonian periods. He restudied collections of Devonian deposits of European Russia, Siberia, western Europe, and America. The results of his research were of great significance for the clarification of the physical and geographical conditions of the Devonian period over a large part of the earth’s surface, from Western Europe to America. As the basis for the organization of these materials, Chernyshyov worked out a new scheme of the stratigraphy of the Urals, showing the sequence of beds and deposits and the composition of the rock of which the Urals and its foothills are composed.
In 1885, for his scientific work in investigating the geological structure of the Urals and other territory of Russia, Chernyshyov was selected as senior geologist of the Geological Committee, and his monographs were awarded prizes by the Academy of Sciences and the Mineralogical Society. His discovery of the Devonian strata of the Urals led to the discovery of analogous deposits in the mountains of central Asia, the Altai, eastern Siberia, and a number of other areas of Russia.
In 1889-1890 Chernyshyov led a geological expedition to the Timan ridge, under the most difficult conditions, through almost impassable swamps and unpopulated areas. The field investigation was carried out by traveling in small boats and on foot through swarms of midges and mosquitoes. A large amount of geological and paleontological material was collected, the treatment of which allowed Chernyshyov to publish one of the most important monographs on the Urals and the Timan (1902). In 1892 he was commissioned to head a scientific group to study the geological structure of the Donets coal basin. Using the stratigraphical-paleontological method of research, Chernyshyov and the group of geologists that he organized produced a highly detailed analysis of the coal deposits of the Donbas and made clear the possibility of their graphical representation on a one-verst map of the basin.
Chernyshyov spent much time and energy in compiling a geological map of European Russia on the scale of 60 versts (40 miles) to 1 inch. At the 1897 session of the International Geological Congress, which took place in St. Petersburg, he was chosen secretary-general of the Congress. At the 1906 session in Mexico his monograph Verkhnekamennougolnye brakhiopody Urala i Timana (“The Upper Coal Layers of Brachiopods of the Urals and the Timan”), published in 1902, won a prize. Chernyshyov contributed much to the science of the physical-geographical conditions of the Devonian period, which played an important role in the evolutionary development of life on the earth. For his productive scientific activity in the field of research on the geological structure of major areas of Russia and the territories of other countries, Chernyshyov was made adjunct of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (Russia) in 1897, extraordinary academician in 1899, and academician in 1909.
In 1899 he was selected as one of the scientific leaders of an expedition sent by the Russian and Swedish academies of science to measure the latitude of Spitsbergen. He conducted research on the geological structure of Spitsbergen and vividly described its geology and glacial landscape. In 1903 Chernyshyov was made director of the Geological Committee of Russia. At this time he was also chosen director of the Mineralogical Museum of the Academy of Sciences. His scientific works were not limited to stratigraphy, paleontology, and physical geology. He also wrote on mineralogy, petrography, ore deposits, and other areas of geological prospecting.