55-b Honchar St., 01054, Kyiv, Ukraine

Phone: (044) 216 9446; fax: 216 9334;
e-mail:info@igs-nas.org.ua

The Institute (founded in 1926) is the oldest geological institution in Ukraine, where a majority of basic branches of the Earth sciences are developed. It does research into the geological structure and geological evolution of the territory of Ukraine and adjacent territories; coordinates regional geological studies conducted by industrial and other enterprises, inter-agency institutions; collaborates with international structures, participates in numerous integrated projects and programs.

The Institute's background is associated with the activities of outstanding scientists – founders of scientific schools – P. A. Tutkovsky, V. G. Bondarchuk, V. B. Porphyryev, A. Ye. Babinets. 2 NAS academicians (I. I. Chebanenko and V. M. Shestopalov), 7 NAS corresponding members (O. D. Fedorovsky, V. K. Gavrish, P. F. Gozhyk, V. I. Lyalko, O. Yu. Mitropolsky, V. M. Semenenko, M. A. Yakymchuk), 37 doctors of sciences and 82 candidates of sciences work at the Institute. The Institute incorporates the Center of Aerospace Sensing of the Earth, the Center of Management and Marketing in the Earth Sciences; 4 specialized councils on conferring doctoral and candidate degrees; post-graduate courses; it is the basic institution of the Ukrainian Paleontological Society and the Inter-Agency Stratigraphic Committee of Ukraine. The Institute publishes «Geological Journal»; its researchers are editors-in-chief and members of editorial boards of journals «Ecology of Environment and Safety of Life», «Geoinformatics» etc. The Institute's library is the richest geological one in Ukraine.

The research activities of the Institute are aimed at solving fundamental geological problems, dealing with urgent issues of mineral raw materials industry of Ukraine (such as fuel, water resources, solid minerals), substantiating scientific fundamentals of preserving and upgrading the environment, studying the World Ocean.

The scientists of the Institute validated the concept of global faults of the Earth's lithosphere; started a new branch of lithogenesis theory – lithogeodynamical analysis of rockforming basins, which is the basis for forecasting fuel and ore mineral resources; they elaborated the Phanerozoic geochronological scale of Ukraine and the basis for Precambrian biostratigraphy; determined geological criteria for useful minerals prospecting; found patterns of water exchange in hydrogeological structures of Ukraine under natural and man- disturbed conditions; substantiated theoretical and methodological aspects of pollutants migration in the geological medium; discovered two new provinces of 'Naftusya'-type mineral water; compiled digital geo-geochemical maps of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov; implemented advanced technologies for studying geological environment of the Antarctic; are carrying out a project on studying, forecasting and minimizing the impact the Chornobyl catastrophe.

The Institute proposes for cooperative upgrading and commercialization: projects on developing criteria for prospecting of significant oil and gas deposits on the basis of geosynergetic theory for naphtidogenesis; a method of mineral water ('Naftusya'-type) conservation, which requires investments for organizing its bottling.