Gerasimov Alexander Pavlovich
(30.08(11.09).1869–10.11.1942)

Outstanding Russian geologist.
Born in Irkutsk, where in 1883 he graduated from the classical gymnasium with a gold medal. In the same year he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.
Already on the senior courses of the Institute Gerasimov under the leadership of such luminaries as A.P. Karpinsky, F.N. Chernyshev and L.I. Lutugin, took part in the just beginning geological survey of Donbass, having passed an excellent school of practical field observations. His two student reports were awarded and published in the Mining Journal.
Upon graduation from the institute, Gerasimov was seconded to the Siberian mountain parties, engaged in geological and mining surveys along the route of the Siberian railway under construction. During 1897–1907 He is led by V.A. Obruchev led the route survey of the Lena gold-bearing taiga. His reports on these works for many years did not lose their relevance.
In 1906, Gerasimov received a task from the Geological Committee to develop a plan of geological surveys in the area of ​​the Caucasian Mineral Waters. This task largely determined the direction of all his subsequent professional activities. For several years he rallied around himself a small but very effective team, thus laying the foundations of the school of Caucasian geologists. The works were carried out on a wide range of geological problems: stratigraphy, tectonics, magmatism, much attention was paid to petrography, volcanism. Gerasimov comprehensively studied seismic phenomena in the Caucasus, followed the manifestation of tectonic movements. They discovered a number of mineral deposits, including the Malkinskoe iron-chromium-nickel ore deposit.
Working as part of the Commission for the Study of Natural Productive Forces, Gerasimov compiled reports on various minerals, accompanied by a critical review of the theories of the formation of these minerals.
Having dedicated many years of detailed geological surveys, Gerasimov created magnificent samples of geological maps on which many generations of geologists studied. He can rightly be called the founder of Soviet geological cartography. It was he who in 1939 compiled the first instruction for detailed shooting, wrote the main section of the instruction “General Geological Observations”. Ahead of his time, Gerasimov advocated the introduction of aerial photography and geophysical observations into the complex of geological surveys.
In 1931, at the initiative of Gerasimov at TsNIGRI, an office of survey maps was created. In a relatively short period, the Geological Map of the European part of the USSR, the geological map of Kazakhstan, the Central Asian republics, the Urals, and the layout of the geological map of the USSR were created and partially published. Only the war prevented the compilation in those years of a geological map of the Soviet Union at a scale of 1: 1,000,000, whose editor-in-chief was Gerasimov.

In addition to scientific work, social and educational activities occupied a large place in Gerasimov’s life. For more than a quarter of a century, he was the scientific secretary of the Russian Mineralogical Society, and since 1937 its chairman and editor of Zapisok. He devoted many years to work in the East-Siberian branch of the Geographical Society, headed the Physical Geography Division of the society in Leningrad, and lectured on volcanism and various problems of geology at Leningrad State University, Geographical and Mining Institutes.
Gerasimov was a well-educated man, spoke several foreign languages, loved and understood music, theater, knew literature and history well. He assembled a huge library of over 5,000 titles. Friends and acquaintances often gathered in his house, among whom were the Shostakovich spouses with her, who had become a famous composer, son.
The war found Gerasimov in Yessentuki. Under difficult conditions, he was evacuated to Tashkent, from there to Novosibirsk, and then to Sverdlovsk. He did not want to go to the far rear, to his native Irkutsk, hoping to return to Leningrad soon. However, his plans did not come true. Gerasimov died in Sverdlovsk.
Mountain and river in the southwestern part of the island Bolshevik of the archipelago Severnaya Zemlya. The hydrographic expedition of the Arctic Ocean  discovered and named in 1914.