The P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
36, Nakhimovsky Prospekt,
117997 Moscow,
Russia
Tel: (495) 1245996
Fax: (495) 1245983
The P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology is the oldest and the largest Russian research centre in the field of oceanology. The main objectives of the Institute lie in a complex study of the World Oceans and the Russian Seas based on the idea of entirety of physical, chemical, biological and geological processes observed in them, laying scientific foundations for forecasting the Earth’s climate variability, rational use of marine resources and safeguarding ecological security in the interests of stable development of mankind.
The Institute was established by a resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1946 on the basis of the Laboratory of Oceanology set up in 1941. P.P.Shirshov became the Institute’s first Director. Together with P.P.Shirshov, well-known scientists like L.A.Zenkevich, V.G.Bogorov, S.V.Bruyevich, A.D.Dobrovolsky, P.L.Bezrukov, I.D.Papanin, V.B.Shtockman and others took an active part in the formation of the new scientific center.
Today, the P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology is an ensemble of 1,600 employees numbering 111 doctors of sciences and 330 candidates of sciences of various disciplines. Among the members of the Institute’s staff there are 3 Academicians and 3 Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as 4 Academicians combining their work at the IO RAS with work in other institutes. The P.P.Shirshov Institute affiliates the Atlantic Department in Kaliningrad, the Southern Department in Gelendjik, a branch in St.-Petersburg and the North-Western Department in Arkhangelsk.
Main directions of research carried out by the P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences
For the period of the Institute's life its scientists made a significant contribution to Russian and the world's science of the ocean.
In 1946 V.B.Shtockman was the first to show a fundamental role of spatial inhomogeneity of wind in the formation of ocean circulation and to create a theory of equatorial countercurrents in the ocean. In the same year a discovery made by L.M.Brekhovskikh, L.A.Rozenberg, et al. of a superdistant propagation of sound in the ocean, the so-called underwater sound channel was recorded.
In 1948 L.A.Zenkevich and V.G.Bogorov advanced a concept of the ocean's biological structure as a global natural law governing the distribution of life in the ocean which made estimation of the total biological resources of the ocean possible.
In 1957 the Institute's scientists pioneered research in ultra-abyssal depths and recorded the World Oceans' maximum depth of 11,022 m in the Marianas Trench (Pacific Ocean).
In 1966 a 9-volume monographic work, "The Pacific Ocean", was presented for publication. This generalising work was later awarded the USSR State Prize.
In 1967 A.S.Monin and R.V.Ozmidov created a theory of ocean turbulence.
In 1970 a large-scale experiment undertaken in the Atlantic Ocean resulted in a discovery of synoptic eddies; the discovery was registered in the State Register of Discoveries of the USSR by L.M.Brekhovskikh, M.N.Koshlyakov, V.G.Kort and L.M.Fomin.
In 1977 the first expedition with PISCES manned submersibles (2 km diving depth) marked the beginning of a new stage in ocean exploration.
In 1978 G.N.Baturin advanced a theory of phosphorite formation in the upwelling zones of the World Ocean, registered later on as a discovery.
In 1980s the Institute made a series of unique laboratory experiments which showed that divers can survive under pressure corresponding to 500 m depth. Man's capability of active behaviour under respiratory mixture pressures corresponding to 2,000 m depth was demonstrated.
The year of 1987 witnessed the first dive of MIR-1 and MIR-2 deep-sea manned submersibles capable of descending to 6,000 m depths. In 1989, a group of constructors and testers of the submersibles headed by I.E.Mikhaltsev was decorated with high governmental awards. Together with the R/V "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh" carrying MIRs onboard, these submersibles formed a unique research complex, the use of which made the largest discovery of the 20th century - the discovery of hydrothermal systems on the ocean floor, possible . Also the research of ore formation processes at 3,000-5,000 m ocean depths under 300-500 atm pressures and 300-400 temperatures of hydrothermal fluids was made.
Various investigations carried out during marine expeditions allowed the Institute's scientists to describe, for the first time, the ecosystem of the hydrothermal fields in the World Ocean, to estimate its biological productivity, to elucidate major laws governing the functioning of pelagic ecosystems, to study and to give a quantitative description of sedimentation processes in the World Ocean.
The recent decade saw a principally new step in the exploration of the Arctic Ocean with the aid of self-contained instrumentation of long use under the international project "Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate"(ATOC). In the North Atlantic, the Logachev and Rainbow hydrothermal fields were found to present a new type of hydrothermal ore formation system; data on the ecosystem of the high-latitude ice regions were obtained for the first time; a sharp change in the heat flows at the North Atlantic surface was recorded as a cause of essential variations in water structure and circulation regime; detailed studies of the ecosystems in the frontal zones of the North Atlantic gyre were made.
Scientific fields of Institute of Oceanology:
- Physical research - hydrology, hydrophysics, hydro-optics, acoustics; the formation of physical structure and water motion systems of the seas and oceans as they accumulate solar energy and interact within the ocean-atmosphere-continents system.
- Biological research - anthropogenic ecology, primary production and the ways of its monitoring, commercial populations; development of fundamentals of the organisation and functioning of the ecosystems of the Russian Seas and the World Ocean and biodiversity conservation.
- Geological research - mineral resources, paleo-oceanology, global tectonics, geophysics, elucidation of peculiarities of the geological structure and evolution of the ocean floor, geophysical fields and geochemical process
- Chemical research - biogeochemistry of organic matter, oil and gas genetic characteristics of the World Ocean, physical-chemical state of sea water; determination of the chemical composition of the major elements of the ecosystems of the oceans and seas, biogeochemical transformation and evolution processes
- Marine engineering - technical means for ocean studies and for ocean information retrieval, development of technical methods and means for long-term observations of physical, chemical and biological parameters of the ocean based on distributed intellectual networks of self-contained bottom, submerged and remote-operated scanning stations.
- Underwater research
Research fleet:
In 1949, the Institute obtained its first research vessel "VITYAZ" of 5 700 tons displacement which was re-equipped specifically for ocean studies. A series of scientific discoveries which brought fame to the Russian science are associated with the "VITYAZ". Nowadays the "VITYAZ" is functioning as the World Ocean Museum at the port of Kaliningrad.
The Institute's research fleet based at the ports of Kaliningrad and Gelendjik incorporates three large-capacity (of more than 6 000 tons displacement) research vessels: "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh", "Akademik Sergei Vavilov" and "Akademik Ioffe"; two medium-capacity (more than 1 000 tons) vessels: "Professor Shtockman" and "Rift" and three small-capacity (less than 1 000 tons) vessels: "Shelf", "Aquanaut" and "Aquanaut-2". All the vessels are fitted up with modern navigational systems, research instruments and equipment for complex studies of the ocean.