Department of Oceanology, Moscow State University

The creation of the Department of Oceanology at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University is connected with the name of Nikolai Nikolaevich Zubov . In the post-war years, the Soviet Union launched the implementation of an extensive research program of the oceans , sharply increased demand for highly qualified oceanologists. In 1948, N. N. Zubov began to look for the possibility of creating a new department of oceanology in Moscow . On February 14, 1952, a general meeting of geography-oceanologists of Moscow University was held, in which professors, teachers, graduate students and students took part - a total of 34 people, on the agenda for which is the organization of an independent department of oceanology at the geographical faculty of Moscow State University. The decision of the meeting was supported by the head of the department of the polar countries , Professor V. G. Bogorov , Dean of the Faculty of Geography, Professor K. K. Markov , Vice-Rector of Moscow State University for Natural Sciences, Professor K. A. Salishchev . In 1953, the natural faculties of Moscow University moved to new buildings on the Lenin Hills . Then it became possible to expand the geographical faculty , new departments appeared in its structure, and among them the Department of Oceanology. Professor N.N. Zubov was invited to become the head of the new department, but, referring to his age, he refused the institution and promoted to this post his student, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor A. D. Dobrovolsky . The specialty of the graduates was determined - “geographer-oceanologist”.

When organizing the department, its main specialization was determined by physical oceanology . In 1953, the first ten geographers-oceanographers graduated. Given the difficult practical conditions of oceanologists in marine expeditions, mainly young men were accepted to the department. The number of graduates averaged 10 specialists annually. In addition to classroom studies, students-oceanologists after the 2nd year underwent training practice on the Black Sea . The coastal part of the practice was carried out at the Hydrometeorological Observatory of the Odessa Hydrometeorological Institute , and the marine part - on the ship “Moscow University”. After the 3rd and 4th courses, students underwent practical training on the flights of research vessels of the Academy of Sciences , Goskomhydromet, the Ministry of Fisheries, Military Hydrography and other departments as trainees and interns.

• 1953-1987 - Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor Dobrovolsky, Alexey Dmitrievich
• 1989-1994 - Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor Mamaev, Oleg Ivanovich
• 1994-2006 - Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lappo, Sergey Sergeevich
• 2006 - present - Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dobrolyubov Sergey Anatolyevich

The teaching staff includes graduates of the department, candidates of geographical sciences, associate professors V. S. Arkhipkin, A. V. Polyakova, A. N. Pantyulin, T. V. Samborsky and Art. teacher S. S. Mukhametov. The scientific staff includes graduates of the department: the oldest employee of the department, a graduate of 1953 V. L. Lebedev and specialist in sea ice and acoustics M. G. Deev; Candidates of Geographical Sciences, Senior Researchers A. N. Demidov, A. T. Kondrin, Senior Researcher S. A. Myslenkov, Researcher F. N. Gippius. Two more employees work in the training auxiliary (engineer N. S. Perlova) and scientific and auxiliary staff (engineer I. A. Gangnus); all of them also participate in the educational process. Currently, the department is giving lectures by part-time academician Sargsyan, Artyom Sarkisovich ; graduate of the department, corresponding member of the RAS, professor S. K. Gulev.

The Department of Oceanology maintains close scientific ties with many maritime organizations in Russia and the near abroad, including the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS , the State Oceanographic Institute named after N. N. Zubova , All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography , Marine Hydrophysical Institute and Pacific Oceanological Institute .

1. The role of the ocean in long-term climate variations. Large-scale interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere. Global ocean circulation, freshwater balance of the oceans, meridional transport of heat and fresh component in the oceans. Water masses of oceans , methods of analysis of water masses, climatic variability of parameters of intermediate and deep waters.
2. The equation of state of sea water. Physical properties of sea water. Salinity and methods for its determination.
3. Comparative navigation. The structure of the waters of the White , Caspian and Black Seas, the variability of their hydrological and hydrochemical characteristics under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors. Ecological problems of the seas of Russia.
4. Circulation in the coastal region of the seas. Numerical modeling of shelf circulation, storm surges and wind waves.

Beginning

Like the Department of Oceanology, the school was created by Professor Nikolai Nikolaevich Zubov. Among his works, six fundamental monographs stand out:

• “Sea waters and ice” (1938),
• "Ice of the Arctic" (1945) with the addition of "On the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic" (1956),
• "Dynamic Oceanology" (1947),
• “In the center of the Arctic - Essays on the history of research and physical geography of the Arctic” (2nd ed. 1948),
• "Domestic Mariners - Researchers of Oceans and Seas" (1954)
• "Fundamentals of the doctrine of the straits of the oceans" (1956).

One of the most important works of N. N. Zubov was Oceanological Tables, published for the first time (in collaboration with V.V. Shuleikin and S.V. Bruevich) under the title Oceanographic Tables in 1931, and for the second time (in collaboration with N.I. Chigirin) in 1940, the third - in 1957. It is enough to note that after 1957 no oceanological expedition went out to sea without this book.

Principles of Oceanology School

• “Dynamic Oceanology” contains models of the main dynamic processes in the ocean - water mixing, the formation of wind waves, tides, various types of currents and the transport of sea ice. In each topic, Teeth examines in detail the simplifications of the real nature of the ocean, which are the foundation of this model. He called these simplifications model assumptions, systematized, numbered and strictly required students to list them on the exam when setting out models. This particular attention to the correspondence between the conditions adopted in the model and the conditions existing in the ocean is the distinctive principle of the dental approach to the study of the ocean. This principle of fidelity to nature, the priority of the object over the model was not widespread under Zubov and still encounters great opposition in oceanology.
• The desire for simplicity and comprehensibility of the presentation of scientific material . Due to the simplicity and clarity of presentation, extremely important dental methods for calculating the speed of currents, as well as the formation, buildup and drift of sea ice, have become widespread in our country and have been used in all expeditions and at polar stations.
• The principle of equality between explorers of the ocean, and beginners, and eminent. Repeating the thought of the great natural scientist V. I. Vernadsky , N. N. Zubov said: “Science is so great, and we its servants are so small in front of its face that it is impossible to distinguish between us.” Zubov liked to repeat that the teacher’s happiness was to become unnecessary to his students.

Followers of the Dental School of Oceanology

For many years, the head of the Department of Oceanology and Oceanology School of Moscow State University was Alexei Dmitrievich Dobrovolsky , who was highly respected among oceanologists and students. A. D. Dobrovolsky managed to largely save the school created by Zubov and her students. Dobrovolsky’s associate was Professor Alexander Ivanovich Duvanin (1914-2002), a student of Yu. M. Shokalsky , a well-known explorer of the tides of the World Ocean, invited in 1960 from the GOIN after the death of Zubov. Under his leadership, research was begun on wave processes in the ocean and the large-scale interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere. Professor Oleg Ivanovich Mamaev was also a prominent scientist. His scientific monographs are filled with rich information, well thought out and well planned, all of them are written in a clear and simple style of the dental school, and therefore remain indispensable professional manuals for students. Mamaev was also a master of oral lectures. He wrote with chalk beautifully and clearly. An important affair of O. I. Mamaev was a seminar at which teachers and researchers discussed detailed and informal reports on the topics of their work. Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Lappo, Sergey Sergeevich put at the forefront the study of global interoceanic circulation (global conveyor) - the latest major discovery of oceanology at the turn of the 20th — 21st centuries. Numerous ocean expeditions of the department’s staff and students to the region of the subpolar North Atlantic, where the formation of deep waters of the World Ocean, the main link of the “inter-ocean conveyor”, have become regular practice.

Research Areas

• Water masses and global heat and mass transfer in the ocean-atmosphere-ice system
• Regional Oceanology
• Questions of theoretical geography of the oceans
• Wave processes and analysis of temporal variability of hydrophysical characteristics of the ocean
• Study of the physical properties of sea water and calculation of sea currents
• Hydrochemical and fisheries research
• History of sea expeditions and geographical discoveries

From 1997 to 2013, employees, graduate students and students of the department participated in more than 20 voyages on the ships of the IO RAS “ Professor Shtokman ”, “ Academician Ioffe ” “ Academician Mstislav Keldysh ” and “ Academician Sergey Vavilov ” in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. These flights are part of the international climate programs WOCE (“Global Experiment on the Study of World Ocean Circulation”) and CLIVAR (“Climate Variations”). The basis of the expeditionary observations was repeated oceanographic sections: latitudinal in the North Atlantic and quasi-meridional in the Southern Ocean. Comparison of the obtained materials with the data of previous flights made it possible to obtain a quantitative assessment of the variability of the Atlantic water masses, meridional heat transfers.

From 1953 to 1991, Odessa was the base for students' marine practice, where the Hydrometeorological Institute was located, which had its own observatory on the Black Sea. After the collapse of the USSR, practical training is carried out on the basis of the Southern Branch of the IO RAS in the Blue Bay in the vicinity of Gelendzhik .

During the first decades, marine research of the department was carried out on ships owned by Moscow State University. At first it was a former big sea hunter, named "Moscow University", then the same name was carried by three more vessels, replacing one another: "Rioni", " Academician Petrovsky ", "Horizon". The last two vessels already had an unlimited navigation area and were used not only for training, but also for production practices, as well as scientific expeditions.

In the 1970s and 80s, it became possible, within the framework of complex oceanological expeditions on these ships, under the leadership of A.N. Kosarev, V.L. Lebedev and K.K. Zelenov, to conduct studies of the hydrological structure of the waters of the Black , Mediterranean and Red Seas , to obtain data on the circulation of water in the seamounts of the East Atlantic, to determine the parameters of internal waves in the Strait of Gibraltar, to assess the possible effect of underwater volcanism on the characteristics of bottom waters in the fault areas of the Atlantic and the Red Sea. The MSU ships base was located in Sevastopol , so after 1991 they were requisitioned by Ukraine . Since then, the possibilities of their own ship research have declined sharply.

The main contribution to the study of this reservoir was made by A.N. Kosarev, who became the author of several monographs on the hydrological regime and its connection with changes in sea level. Based on the most complete archival data banks of ship hydrological and coastal hydrometeorological observations in the Black and Caspian Seas, he, together with V. S. Tuzhilkin, formulated for the first time a new concept of the hydrological climate of deep inland seas. According to this concept, the main climate-forming process in these seas, along with the forced reaction to the annual cycle of external influences, is its own dynamic reaction in the form of Rossby gradient-vortex waves of the annual period. Due to the limited size of the internal seas, these waves form quasi-geostrophic amphidromic systems of cyclically rotating sub-basin cycles.

Research on the Arctic seas was initiated by N. N. Zubov, who, in the military years 1941-1943, was personally responsible for guiding ships through the ice of the White Sea and using ice railway crossings to unload them at the mouth of the Northern Dvina. This experience gave him new scientific material on the mechanical properties of sea and river ice, the processes of ice buildup and melting, and the tidal and wind dynamics of ice in the White Sea. The Department of Oceanology began the study of the White Sea in the mid-1960s on the basis of two biological stations located in the Kandalaksha Gulf: the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University and the Zoological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences . In 1972, Moscow State University biostation received a new vessel - a seiner with a displacement of 80 tons. Since then, under the guidance of Associate Professor A.N. Pantyulin, it has been possible to conduct more than 50 expeditions, coastal and on the high seas, in all seasons of the year.

Since 2013, students of the Department of Oceanology regularly participate in the voyages of the vessel Professor Molchanov (floating university) in the White, Barents and Kara Seas under the program of the Russian Geographical Society , Roshydromet and Northern Federal University .

Over the 60-year history, the Department of Oceanology of Moscow University has trained about 580 specialists, masters and bachelors. More than 170 of them defended their dissertations, about 50 - doctoral. Three graduates (S. S. Lappo, S. A. Dobrolyubov and S. K. Gulev) became corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences .

Scientific and research organizations

Graduates of the department now work in all oceanological centers of the former USSR.

• State Oceanographic Institute. N. N. Zubova - Famous oceanologists A.I. Simonov, S.G. Oradovsky, S.P. Levikov, V.M. Gruzinov worked and are working here. Over the years, GOIN was headed by graduates of the department S. S. Lappo and V. F. Komchatov ^[1] .
• Roshydromet - chairman A. V. Frolov - graduate of the department ^[2] .
• Institute of Oceanology P.P. Shirshova - school students B.N. Filyushkin, V.I. Kuksa, E.A. Plakhin, A.V. Leonov, I.D. Lozovatsky, G.M. Zhikharev made a great contribution to the work of the institute, A. B. Rabinovich, E. V. Semenov. From 1993 to 2006, the institute was headed by the graduate of the department S. S. Lappo. The educational practice of the department takes place on the basis of the southern branch of the institute, joint expeditionary research is conducted on the ships of the IO RAS.
• All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and regional branches - AtlantNIRO (Kaliningrad), PINRO (Murmansk), TINRO (Vladivostok), YugNIRO (Kerch).

Graduates also work in other countries of the world involved in oceanological research: the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, China, Bulgaria, Mexico, Uruguay, Senegal and other countries. ^[3]

• geogr.msu.ru/cafedra/ocean - the official website of the department.