Division

The Laboratory was established in 1968 by N.A. Florensov, Corr. Mem. Acad. of Sci. USSR. Beginning in 1973, the Laboratory was headed by Academician N.A. Logatchev, and since 1986 till 2011 it had been headed by G.F. Ufimtsev, Doctor of Geology and Mineralogy. In 2011 the Laboratory was combined with Laboratory of Lithogenesis and Stratigraphy with new name as Laboratory of Cenozoic.

The Laboratory is the Russia’s leading research team:

1. studying relief, neotectonics and newest intracontinental orogenesis and
2. elaborating theoretical geomorphology and geology problems.

The Laboratory acted as a research organization center for comprehensive study of the Baikal rift under international programs and projects. Since 1984, the Laboratory has been organizing and coordinating discussion concerning theoretical geomorphology problems at the Irkutsk seminar, the results of which are published in 9 collective monographs presenting a series of studies in leading geomorphological schools of Russia and CIS countries that have no analogues in the world practice.

The Laboratory researches actively participated in preparation 15-volume monograph “History of development of topography in Siberia and the Far East”. In 1978, three of the participants – N.A. Florensov, N.A. Logatchev and O.M. Adamenko – were awarded the State Premium of the USSR. In 1994, G.F. Ufimtsev was awarded the N.M. Przhevalsky Gold Medal by the Russian Geographic Society for the works on geography of Asia. The Laboratory research team prepared monographic summaries of the Mesozoic tectonics of the south of East Siberia, morphotectonics and morpholithodynamics of the Baikal rift zone, and neotectonics of the east of the Russia, Inner Asia and Eurasia as a whole. An account of mountain belts on the continents and mountains on the Earth (climatic and tectonic types) has been given, and analysis has been made on the structure of planetary relief of the Earth. Detailed characteristics have been presented for morphotectonics and relief of the Tunka section of the Baikal rift zone. The monographic studies have been conducted with the geological and geomorphological theories and tectonic analysis of the Earth’s surface relief.

Main current lines of investigations are:

1. theory and methodology of neotectionics and geomorphology; structure of planetary relief of the Earth;
2. neotectonics and relief of Inner Asia;
3. geology of Quaternary sediments in rift valleys of East Siberia;
4. Baikal region’s natural resource endowment.

Geomorphologists. The Laboratory researchers conduct research in cooperation with their colleagues from Ulan-Ude, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Moscow and St.-Petersburg and the scientists from Italy, England, Canada and China, and teach the Irkutsk State Pedagogical University students.

The prospects in development of the Laboratory include further research in neotectonics and relief of Eurasia and planetary relief, theoretical geology and geomorphology, specialized tectonic analysis of relief, and detailed studies of the Baikal-type basins and framing mountains.