EDWARD SUESS AND RUSSIAN GEOLOGISTS

Abstract

The publication is devoted to the history of one of the greatest concepts of tectonics of Asia, that has been widely accepted and yet obliterated with time, while the splendors of this concept are doubtful. Numerous citations in the Russian papers to «The Face of the Earth» by Edward Suess and the fact that he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences clearly demonstrate how highly Suess’s contribution to studies of the structure and geological evolution of Asia was valued by the Russian geological community. Suess’s letters to Vladimir A. Obruchev give evidence how close and productive the relationship between Edward Suess and the Russian researchers was in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries and also illustrate how the great tectonic concept of Asia [Suess, 1908] was born and developed. The idea of centrifugal propagation of tectonic waves of the Altaids from a continental node located somewhere in Siberia was mainly inspired by Suess’s profound scientific intuition. The idea matured after Edward Suess got acquainted with Ivan D. Chersky’s paper [Черский, 1886] that greatly facilitated in shaping and improving this idea. It was mailed to Suess by Vladimir A. Obruchev who translated the paper, attached his own map and provided explanations to Chersky’s ideas. The available historical documents suggest that Vladimir A. Obruchev facilitated communication between the Russian geologists, on the one side, and Edward Suess and other Austrian geologists who conducted geological studies in Asia, on the other side. Being actively involved in exchange of publications and cooperation in field data processing, Edward Suess was aware of all the details of the Russian geological studies.In addition to the concept of tectonic arcs of the Altaids and descriptions of main geological structures located in Northern Asia and China, Edward Suess adopted a concept of disjunctive dislocations proposed by the Russian geologists. While interpreting the structure of huge territories of Asia that were poorly studied then, he stuck to the orometric geometry principles and thus, unfortunately, missed the Russian conclusions on disagreement between belts and mountain ridges, superimposed folding, mélanges etc., and such features were not incorporated in his concepts.Papers of Edward Suess, including «The Face of the Earth» which was very positively accepted by the geological scientific community, have never been translated into Russian, unlike other foreign publications. In 1930–1940, the name of Edward Suess gradually vanished from references in the Soviet scientific papers. Such a lapse seems to have resulted from the fact that Suess’s papers were misinterpreted and misunderstood by scientists who adhered to the geosyncline theory. Examples of such errors can be easily discovered by reviewing the history of development of concepts of the Siberian and Russian cratons.The truly gentlemanly behavior demonstrated by the key researchers of geology of Asia in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries is highly educative and commendable. It is worth studying the scientific reports of Edward Suess and his Russian colleagues with a more detail and comprehensive approach.

Keywords

• edward suess
• tectonics of asia
• altaids
• history of geology