Mushketov Ivan Vasilyevich 
(09(21).01.1850–10(23).01.1902)

Russian geologist, traveler, explorer of Central Asia, the Urals and the Caucasus. 
Born on the Don, in the village of Alekseevskaya Oblast, the Don Cossack troops, now the Volgograd Oblast, in a poor Cossack family. He lost his mother early and was brought up by his grandfather, who often took his grandson with him on trips across the Don steppes. Perhaps these impressions and gave rise to a passion for travel, the study of nature. 
At the age of seven  Mushketov was sent to the county school, and at 9 years old - to the classical gymnasium of Novocherkassk. Already in the gymnasium, he showed interest in mineralogy. For the love of collecting collections of stones, comrades called him a “bricklayer”. The boy knew well the properties of various minerals, collected collections of plants and insects. At the same time, it was easy for him to learn languages, so some advised him to choose philology and linguistics as a specialty, others to become a mining engineer. 
After graduating from the Mushketov Gymnasium in 1867, the Don Cossack scholarship was enrolled and sent to St. Petersburg to continue education. At first he gave preference to his philological hobby and entered the history and philology department of St. Petersburg University, but after spending one year here, he moved to the Mining Institute, where G. Romanovsky, a professor of geology, became his teacher. The Mining Institute showed brilliant abilities to scientific geological activity.Immediately after graduating from the Institute in 1872, he made his first large geological expeditions to the South Urals, to the Kochkarsky gold mines. Being engaged in the study of deposits of gold and other metals, he discovered three unknown minerals in Russia, including arsenic pyrite, ascertaining its connection with the vein gold deposits. 
In 1873 Mushketov accepted an invitation to take up the post of mining official under the Turkestan Governor-General. Before him, outstanding people worked here -Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Severtsov, Fedchenko, but none of them was a specialist geologist. At that time, the vast territory of Central Asia was practically not studied, especially in geological terms. 
In 1874 Mushketov, together with G. Romanovsky, traveled through Turkestan to study mineral deposits. From Tashkent, they crossed over to Samarkand, examined coal mines and coal deposits in the Mogoltau ridge near Khojent, conducted geological routes along the Western Tien Shan, Syrdarya Karatau, Western Fergana and the Zeravshan valley. 
In 1875 Mushketov made a long journey through the northern part of the Tien Shan, then went to the Ili River valley, and along it to Kuldzhu, crossed the Borokhoro ridge (the northern outskirts of the Tien Shan) twice, explored the high-mountain lake Sairam-Nur, Dzungarian Alatau in the valley of the river Borotala descended to the lake Ebi-Nur, thus completing the intersection of the Western and Central Tien Shan. For his studies of Tien Shan, he was elected a full member of the IRGO at the age of 26 and was awarded a silver medal. 
During 1876 Mushketov surveyed the Zlatoust Mining District of the Urals, and then again was sent to Central Asia to continue research. Studying the geology of the Karatau mountain range, Ivan Vasilyevich examined a brown coal deposit near the city of Samarkand, discovered and described a deposit of lead, rock salt and turquoise.From Tashkent, the route ran to Kuldzhi, covering almost the entire Tien Shan. 
In subsequent years  he continued geological study of Central Asia. For six years, research has covered a large part of the Tien Shan, the Northern Pamirs, the Alai system and the western part of the Kyzyl Kum desert. Thanks to his work, the map of Central Asia has undergone significant corrections and additions. In his two-volume work “Turkestan. The geological and orographic description of the data collected during the journeys from 1874 to 1881” Mushketov completely modified his ideas about the location of the mountain ranges of Central Asia, consistently outlined the history of studying the interior of the Asian continent, from the very first information about it, reported by the Chinese, Greek and Roman scientists, to the scientific works of the beginning of the XX century. For traveling to Central Asia, the Academy of Sciences awarded him a prize, and in 1880 the Imperial Russian Geographical Society awarded the highest award, the golden Konstantinovsky medal. 
In 1882 Mushketov came to St. Petersburg and was appointed senior geologist of the Geological Committee, where, since 1877, he was an adjunct professor. From 1882 he also taught at the Institute of Railway Engineers and other educational institutions. 
Having already become an academician, Mushketov came to grips with the problems of the ice age in the vicinity of Tsaritsyn. In 1885, he visited the salt lake Baskunchak and made an assumption about its karst origin. In subsequent years  he worked in the Caucasus, where he studied its geological structure and glaciers, deposits of coal and manganese in the basin of the river Rioni. Then he conducted research in the Astrakhan steppes, Crimea, studied the mineral springs of Lipetsk. 
In 1887 he began to investigate the causes and consequences of the earthquake in the city of Verny (now Alma-Ata), which occurred on May 28 (June 9), 1887. His trip to the northern Tien Shan Mushketov marked the beginning of the study of earthquakes in Central Asia. Since then, the scientist has worked hard on the most complex issues of physics and geology of the Earth, he has compiled the first large catalog of earthquakes in Russia. 
Mushketov was a professor at the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg, an honorary member of the Vienna Geographical Society, and an editor of the journal "Notes of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society". In 1885  he was elected chairman of the Physical Geography Division of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Academician L.S. Berg wrote that the Society reached the apogee of its development at a time when the Department of Physical Geography was headed by Mushketov. He was the winner of two scientific awards - Makarievsky and Konstantinovsky, published about 150 scientific works. His two-volume work "Physical Geology" was published in 1888-1891  and translated into many languages. He was a great teacher, he was fascinated by his lectures. Among his pupils V.A. Obruchev, K.I. Bogdanovich and others. 
He died in Petersburg from pneumonia, although all his life he was distinguished by his good health and almost never was ill. He was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery. Granite cross on a pedestal. 
Strait between the island of Gavrilova and the peninsula Zarya in the Kara Sea. Named in 1900 E.V. Toll. 
Glacier in the northwest of the island Bolshevik of the archipelago Severnaya Zemlya.  Named in the 1950s by  NIIGA geologists.
A small river on the Bolshevik island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. Named in the 1950s by  NIIGA geologists.