The ore-petrographic museum of the Institute of geology of ore deposits, petrography, mineralogy, and geochemistry (IGEM RAS) - the unique in Russia specialized museum having a regular collection of all known kinds of magmatic rocks. The museum has the regional collections representing magmatic rocks and the main types of ores of the majority of ore districts of Russia and of some foreign countries, and also the thematic collections illustrating features of magmatism and ore formation of separate epochs and geodynamic environments during evolution of the Earth.

The museum is open from 11:00 till 17:00 daily except for Saturday and Sundays. For collective excursions for groups of visitors it is necessary to make preliminary order.

The nearest metro stations are Tretiakovskaya and Polyanka.
Address: 119017 Moscow, Staromonetny Per., 35.
IGEM RAS. Tel.: (8-499) 230-82-92, Fax: (8-495) 951-1587.
E-mail: Pavlov@igem.ru

Manager of the museum – Dr. Sukhanov, Michael Konstantinovich

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM

History of the ore-petrographic museum originates from a Kunstkamera - the first Russian museum established in the beginning of 18-th century under the order of Peter the Fist. In 1716 the Kunstkamera had acquired the collection of minerals (1195 samples) which has laid down a basis of the Mineral room of the Petersburg Kunstkamera. When in 1725 Kunstkamera has been transferred under control of newly created Russian Academy of Sciences, the Mineral room became the center of storage of a stone material, and the scientific arrangement of its collections has begun. These works are related to the name of great Russian scientist М.V. Lomonosov who has made in 1745 the first catalogue of samples « of stones and earths », possessed by the Kunstkamera. In second half of 18th century large geographical expeditions headed by P.S. Pallas and others have been organized, and they have considerably filled up geological collections of Kunstkamera. Beside the samples of rocks, ores and minerals from the countries of the Western Europe, Kunstkamera collections have been replenished with the material collected at Altai, Urals Mountains, Transbaikalia and Northern Russia.

In 1836 for the first time within the Academy of Sciences the Mineralogical museum has been established as an independent institution (from 1898 – renamed to Geological, from 1907 – to Geological-mineralogical museum), which has been named after Peter the Great in 1903. From 1900 till 1914 this museum was headed by academician F.N. Chernyshev. Under his initiative, several expeditions have been organized; they have collected new materials which have allowed shedding light on geological history of outback regions of Russia, which have been before that time white spots on geological map of Russia.

From the second half of 19th century, the general geologic and paleontologic directions prevailed in activity of Academy of Sciences; therefore the ore-mineralogical and petrographic parts of museum funds practically were not replenished during this period. In 1912 under direction of Academician V.I. Vernadsky at A.E. Fersmann and V.I. Kryzhanovsky's participation, the Mineralogical sector of the museum revives and becomes an independent center of mineralogical, petrographic and metallogenic researches of geological objects. After 1917 the museum which was headed by Academician A.E. Fersmann, has assisted in the organization of several complex geological expeditions. These expeditions, headed by prominent scientists – staff members of the Museum, have enriched its collections with materials of big cognitive importance.

In 1929-30 the decision on essential expansion of works in the field of geological sciences in the Academy of Sciences has been made and on 8th of March, 1930, on the basis of Geological and Mineralogical museum in Leningrad – the only academic geological institution of that time - the specialized institutes – Mineralogical-Geochemical-Petrographic (PETRIN), Geological (GIN) have been created. On the basis of petrographic collections of earlier existed museum, the Petrographic museum has been formed at PETRIN which was headed by Academician F.Y. Loevinson-Lessing. This year can be considered as a birth date of the existing museum, which after PETRIN moving to Moscow in 1934 is located in the house №35 of Staromonetny lane. In 1932, Geochemical and Mineralogical institutes have been united to form the M.V. Lomonosov Institute of geochemistry, mineralogy and кристаллографии (LIGEM) under direction of Academician A.E. Fersmann. From 1937 to 1955 LIGEM, PETRIN and GIN have been parts of united Institute of geological sciences (IGS), and since 1955 the scientific divisions of former LIGEM, PETRIN and Petrographic museum have formed main body of now existing Institute of geology of ore deposits, petrography, mineralogy and geochemistry (IGEM RAS). From 1956 to 1988 the IGEM have been headed by Academician F.V. Chukhrov, and from 1989 to 2004 the Institute was headed by Academician N.P. Laverov and now it is headed by Academician N.S. Bortnikov.

Change of the name and structure of Institutes, whose structure included the Petrographic museum, have not affected its status and orientation of works as their scientific topics always included the broad spectrum of fundamental problems related to the theory of formation of rocks and ores. The major style of carrying out geological researches during this period has been complex expeditions. The Tajik-Pamir’s, Kola, Kazakhstan, Urals, Caucasian, East-Siberian and other expeditions have been working for many years. The activity of these expeditions has resulted in discovery of many ore-magmatic provinces and regions, deposits of metallic and nonmetallic minerals. The IGEM staff members have actively participated in their study. As a result, the funds of the Museum have been replenished with a significant amount of samples of rocks, ores of diverse metallic and nonmetallic minerals, and the subjects of its collections have went far beyond of pure petrographic. In this connection it has been renamed to ore- petrographic museum in 1993. Sections on ore subjects have been included into its exposition. In 2000 a permanent exposition of nonmetallic (industrial) commodities has been established. This branch of the Ore-Petrographic museum is located in the house 24, building 4, Dmitry Ulyanov Str.

DIRECTIONS OF ACTIVITY AND FUNDS OF THE MUSEUM

In conformity with the status of the Ore-Petrographic museum as a structural division of IGEM, the primary goal of its activity is gathering, processing, ordering and storage of samples and collections of rocks and ores with a view of their use: 1) at research works of staff members of IGEM RAS and other geological organizations; 2) in educational process of comprehensive schools and special educational institutions of geological style; 3) in educational activity and with a view of popularization of the basic achievements of national geologists in development of theoretical bases of petrology and doctrines of ore deposits and expansion of raw-material base of Russia. Now funds of the Museum comprise more than 80 thousand samples which in a varying degree represent various (mainly magmatic) rocks and ores of different continents of the Earth and the World ocean bottom. The majority of them has been collected during field works and transferred to Museum by scientists of institutes related to the Museum.

On the basis of a stone material which the Museum has, a computer databank was created and is being permanently replenished. The full information on samples from basic, exchange and auxiliary funds of the Museum with the indication of a storage place of each sample is contained in it. Such databank operatively enough allows, using one or several attributes, to reveal presence and to select samples necessary for carrying out studies, and also substantially facilitates integration of regional and thematic expositions of rocks and ores. These collections are used for educational activity and acquaint visitors of the Museum with a variety of rocks and ores of our planet and specificity of magmatism and metallogeny at consecutive stages of the Earth's crust development and under different geodynamic environments. On the basis of such collections, the Museum, under preliminary arrangement, organizes special lessons on some problems of magmatism and ore formation for university students. Besides, the Museum assists in creation of educational collections of rocks and ores for comprehensive schools and other educational institutions and performs an advisory work on typification of magmatic rocks, diagnostics of rock-forming and ore minerals and on other problems of petrography of crystalline rocks and composition of various ores. The Museum periodically organizes exhibitions devoted to the anniversaries of outstanding geologists.

COLLECTIONS AND EXPOSITIONS OF THE MUSEUM

The Basis of assembly of the Museum is a regular reference collection of magmatic rocks and the collections of main ore types of major ore-producing regions of Russia - Urals, Altai, Transbaikalia, Eastern Siberia and the Far East. These collections are constantly exhibited at the Museum. The reference collection of magmatic rocks allows to familiarize with the appearance of the overwhelming majority of presently known ca. 130 varieties of plutonic and volcanic rocks and, besides samples, includes collections of thin and polished sections of rocks and rock-forming minerals, catalogues of chemical and spectral analyses of various structural and compositional types of magmatic rocks.

Regional and thematic collections represent replaceable fund of the Museum and are exhibited periodically, being accompanied by maps, diagrams, photomicrographs and references. The major part of regional collections is the author's collections and is represented by samples of rocks and the ores, collected by Russian and, to a lesser degree, foreign natural scientists during field works and travels in different regions of the World. From old collections of such type the earliest are collections of A. Tsipser (1817, volcanic rocks of Hungary); A. Pastels (materials of round-the-world travel in 1826-1831); Vanotti (products of Vesuvius eruption in 1835); A.O. Struve (1830-1836, rocks of Bohemia); O.O. Baklund (1907-1916, rocks of different areas of the world and Russia); F.N. Chernyshev (1907, Scotland, Canada, Caucasus); the collections of Russian polar expeditions of E.V.Toll’ (1893 and 1903) and А.А. Byalynitsky-Birulya (1915). The stone material collected by outstanding geologists of later period: V.I. Vernadsky, V.A. Obruchev, F.Yu. Loevinson-Lessing, D.S. Belyankin, A.N. Zavaritsky, A.E. Fersmann, A.G. Betekhtin, D.S. Korzhinskii, F.V. Chukhrov, O.A. Vorob’eva, B.M. Kupletsky, G.D. Afanas’ev, V.P. Petrov, T.N. Shadlun and other scientists (total more than 50 collections) is kept. Many of these collections are thematic and are represented by samples of rocks and/or ores, collected during research works carried out to solve various problems of petrology and metallogeny. Besides, the Museum has a series of thematic collections which were composed from materials of different authors and reflect specificity of magmatic rocks and their associations in various geotectonic environments.

The most representative thematic collections making the major part of Museum’s exposition are collections of magmatic rocks taking part in the structure of oceanic crust, island arcs, active continental margins and rift zones. Collections of ores of non-ferrous (Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) and noble (Pt, Pd, Au, Ag) metals of various genetic types and from different metallogenic provinces of Russia, CIS and other countries, represented by samples and polished samples, are not only attractive, but are also of great scientific interest. The expositions show widely enough the iron, manganese, chrome, molybdenum, tungsten and tin ores of various origin and structures.
Special show-cases of the Museum display diamond-bearing rocks - kimberlites and lamproites, and also such specific rocks as carbonatite, anorthosite, eclogite. Separate sections of the Museum’s exposition are devoted to products of modern volcanism and to rocks, which are per se mineral raw materials (nephelinites, ongonites, perlites and other). In a special storage there is the lunar regolith brought by automatic cosmic stations "Moon".

Doubtless interesting is exposed in the Museum a sulfide ore sample of 200 kg weight that was lifted from the bottom of the western part of Pacific Ocean close to one of so-called «black smokers». Besides, in assembly of the Museum the samples representing the rocks very rare or brought from remote areas are available and exhibited. Such are the gabbro with peculiar spherolite texture (corsite), Archean komatiites, metamorphic rocks from the Chomolungma (Everest) Mountain and drill core from deep parts (> 11 km) of the Kola superdeep, basalts (marianites) from the bottom of Mariana trough of Pacific ocean and others.

THE EXPOSITION IN A BRANCH OF THE MUSEUM

The Constant exposition in branch of the Museum (Vavilov street, 34, ph. 8-499-135-97-43) gives full notion about a variety of nonmetallic minerals. The exposed there collection of industrial and jeweller’s obsidians is one of the largest in Russia. All hues of intrinsic colors are represented in collection of lazurite from intensively dark blue to cyan-bright. Among samples of the exposition there are jadeite, charoite, cornelians of various color, druses of rock crystal and unusual textural varieties of Dal’negorsk skarn. Mica is represented with unique on size phlogopite crystals from the Kovdor deposit (Kola peninsula) and muscovite from Mama district (Siberia).

A significant place in the exposition belongs to collections of magnesite, asbestos, talc-magnesite and talc ores. Unique by abundance of varieties and quantity of represented deposits are the collections of industrial rocks used in the building industry. An outstanding place among them is occupied with perlite collection. A large exposition is devoted to a facing stone - to marble, granites, labradorite and serpentine. The mining-chemical raw materials are represented by large samples of sulfur from volcanoes of Kurile Islands, apatite ores of Khibina massif, borates and borosilicates of various deposits.
As a whole, the expositions of the Ore-Petrographic Museum and its branch allow to receive full notion about a diversity of magmatic rocks and to familiarize with a wide spectrum of metallic and nonmetallic commodities used by mankind.