Feodosy Nikolayevich Chernyshov or Feodosii Nikolaevich Chernyshev (russian: Феодо́сий Никола́евич Чернышёв; – ) was a

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 ...

and a

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. He was among the first to produce high resolution geological maps of the Urals region where he discovered

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

strata. Chernyshev was an Honorary Member of Russian and Foreign Learned Societies.

Early life

Chernyshev was born in Kiev where his parents were teachers. He was named after St. Theodosius. After studies at home, he joined Kiev gymnasium where he studied languages, mathematics and physics. He became interested in travels after meeting a family acquaintance who brought stories of sea voyages. He then joined the naval school in 1872 but in 1875 his father asked the head of the school to dismiss his son due to poor health (probably poor eyesight) and this was granted. He then joined the mining institute in 1875 and graduated from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute in 1880. Here his teachers included P.V. Eremeev and V.I. Möller, A.P. Karpinsky, I.V. Mushketov, and G. D. Romanovsky. He also received a Catherine's Scholarship. He then joined the civil service as a mining engineer and worked under V.I. Möller in the Urals. His field surveys led him to the study of

stratigraphy Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigrap ...

paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

deposits in the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

. In 1882, he was put in charge of compiling a geological map at the scale of 10 Versts to an inch. In 1892, he directed the mapping of the

Donbas The Donbas or Donbass (, ; uk, Донба́с ; russian: Донба́сс ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are controlled by Russian separatist groups as a result of the Russo-Ukrai ...

area and geologic maps of the southern Urals and

Timan Ridge The Timan Ridge (russian: Тиманский кряж – ''Timansky Kryazh'') is a highland in the far north of European Russia. Most of the Timan Ridge is situated in the Komi Republic, but the northernmost part is in Nenets Autonomous Okrug a ...

. He later, in 1900, became the director of the Geologic Museum. He died suddenly in 1914 and was buried in Smolensk Cemetery, St. Petersburg.

References

External links

WorldCat bibliographyHistory of the Russian Geological Research Institute
(VSEGEI) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chernyshov, Feodosy Nikolayevich 1856 births 1914 deaths Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Saint Petersburg Mining University alumni Geologists from the Russian Empire Paleontologists from the Russian Empire