Igor Alexandrovich Menyailov

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Igor Alexandrowitsch Menjailow ( Russian Игорь Александрович Меняйлов ; born March 14, 1937 , † January 14, 1993 at Galeras ) was a Russian volcanologist and geologist .

Life

Origin and education

He was born as the son of the mineralogist Sofia Iwanova Naboko (1909; † 2005) and Alexander Alexejewitsch Menjailow (* 1907; † 1985), one of the pioneers of volcanology in the Soviet Union . In 1971 he studied with Georgi Stepanowitsch Gorschkow (* 1921, † 1975) at the Institute for Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a dissertation on the differentiation of volatile components of magma in the process of active volcanism ' ( Russian: Дифференциатия Дифференциатия Диференциатия Дифференциатия Диференциатия компонентов магмы в процессе активного вулканизма ) PhD .

Scientific career

He then worked at the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology at the Kamchatka Research Center in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . It is an institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences . During his more than 25 years of research, Menjailov focused on volcanoes in Kamchatka , the Kuril Islands and Nicaragua and was regarded as the world's leading expert in the investigation and analysis of volcanic gases. He had been close friends with his American colleague Stanley N. Williams since they first met in 1982 during an observation in Nicaragua.

In January 1993 he took part in a week-long IAVCEI conference in Pasto , Colombia . The aim was to develop geochemical and geophysical monitoring programs for the nearby Galeras volcano . Although this had been active since 1988, it had been stable and calm for the previous six months. During the conference, an international team of several scientists and interested laypeople set out for the volcano's crater; it was Menjailov's first visit to this mountain and to South America at all. The researchers split up into several groups, Menjailow and colleagues collected gas samples in the summit region and at the crater rim. Shortly after 1.30 p.m. there was a small but extremely violent eruption that lasted just under 15 minutes without warning. Igor Menjailow was killed along with five other researchers ( Geoff Brown , Fernando Cuenca , Carlos Trujillo , Néstor García and José Arlés Zapata ) and three tourists.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William J. Broad: "When a Volcano Turns Deadly for Those Studying Its Moods" on nytimes.com ( New York Times ). Accessed April 3, 2010
  2. ^ "Surviving Galeras" (book presentation) on houghtonmifflinbooks.com ( Houghton Mifflin ). Accessed April 3, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Menyailov, Igor Alexandrovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menyailov, Igor; Меняйлов, Игорь Александрович (Russian spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian volcanologist and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1937
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1993
Place of death Galeras