P. V. Khimchenko, M. A. Tkachenko (Karpinsky Institute)

DIAMOND GEOLOGY AT KARPINSKY INSTITUTE

The national school of diamond geology emerged in the Geological Committee in 1928 when the diamond research group headed by A. P. Burov was formed and began to work. The diamond geology development continued successfully within the walls of the committee’s successor – the All-Union and then the All-Russian Geological Research Institute of A. P. Karpinsky. For many years, the Institute's employees conducted scientific and regional minerogenic studies of diamondiferous provinces, created predictive maps of diamond potential in large regions, studied diamond collectors, diamond-associated minerals and specifically diamonds and diamond-bearing rocks, as well as supervised and directly participated in the diamond deposits prospecting. They discovered over a dozen primary and placer diamond deposits; six specialists of the Institute bear the honorary title “Discoverer of Deposits”. The article dedicated to the 70th anniversary of discovering the Zarnitsa kimberlite pipe provides a brief history of diamond geology at Karpinsky Institute from its inception up to the present day. It covers biographical essays on the Institute’s scientists and specialists, including those who continue to study diamond-bearing areas and search for new diamond deposits today.

Keywords: history of geology, diamonds, diamond potential, regional geological study of subsoil, mineral exploration, personalia