Sergei Nikolayevich Nikitin

Sergei Nikolajewitsch Nikitin , Russian Сергей Николаевич Никитин (born January 23, 1851 in Moscow , † November 5, 1909 ) was a Russian geologist and paleontologist. He is known for his work on paleontology ( ammonites ) and stratigraphy of the Russian Mesozoic ( Jurassic , Cretaceous ) and hydrogeology .

Nikitin studied botany at Lomonosov University and then taught at a middle school before teaching geology and mineralogy at the Moscow Women's College. There he turned entirely to geology. In 1882 he became a geologist in the Geological Committee that was founded at the time and participated in the geological mapping of Russia.

His master's dissertation from 1878 was on the ammonites Amaltheus funiferus and ammonites of the Jura in central Russia and their relationship to forms in Western Europe became one of his main areas of research. As a paleontologist, he also dealt with the concept of species in general. He was the first to introduce Albert Oppel's biostratigraphic methods in the stratigraphy of Jurassic and Chalk in Russia . In particular, he examined the formations of the Upper Jurassic that he called the Volga layers. He and Melchior Neumayr argued about the paleoclimatology and paleogeography of the Jurassic, where Nikitin advocated distinguishing only a European province (with Russia) and a Mediterranean one. Nikitin also treated the stratigraphy of the chalk in Central Russia (1888) and dealt with the carbon in the Moscow area and the Russian Quaternary, including the ice edge location in Russia and the shapes of the Russian river valleys. He dealt with the regional geology of the Urals, the Ust-Urt Plateau and the Mugodshar Mountains. Most recently, he dealt with hydrogeology and became the first chairman of the Russian hydrological committee. He was considered one of the best experts on the hydrogeology of the European part of Russia and wrote about the artesian springs in Moscow in 1890 .

With Alexander Petrowitsch Karpinski and Feodossi Nikolajewitsch Tschernyschow he created a geological overview map of the European part of Russia in six sheets 1: 1: 252,000 in 1893.

He was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

literature

• Nikolaus Polutoff: Pioneers of geological research in Russia. In: Geologische Rundschau . Volume 31, number 7/8, 1940, pp. 457-487, doi : 10.1007 / BF01766468 .
• Iraida A. Starobdutseva: SN Nikitin (1851-1909) and his contribution to the development of the Mesozoic stratigraphic scheme of Central Russia. In: Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation. Volume 21, 2013, pp. 36-47, doi : 10.1134 / S086959381206007X .
• Irina Batyushkova, article Nikitin in Dictionary of Scientific Biography .