编号 3 (2022)

Ammolite is a trade name for an iridescent fossilized nacreous layer of ammonite shells. Ammolite is now widely used for manufacture of various interior decorations and jewelry. The author was the first to carry out comprehensive mineralogical, geochemical, and technological studies of ammolite using modern methods. The factors determining the intensity and color of iridescence have been established. The article presents the results of the study of ammolite from Canada and the north of Krasnoyarsk Krai.

An accidental diesel fuel spill happened at the end of May 2020 at the Thermal Power Plant No. 3 of OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel. The study of bottomsediments of the Norilsk-Pyasina water system (July 29 — August 13, 2020) has shown that pollution spread along the river flow by 31 km, however entered neither Lake Pyasino nor the Kara Sea. The average content of aliphatic hydrocarbons in sediments of the Bezymyannyi Creek and the Daldykan and Ambarnaya rivers (1457 μg/g) was almost 70 higher than in Lake Pyasino and in the Pyasina River (in average, 21 μg/g). The composition of aliphatic hydrocarbons in bottom sediments did not correspond to the hydrocarbon composition of diesel fuel even in the most polluted areas due to the transformation of alkanes. The content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons also decreased sharply with the distance from the pollution source (from 3865 to 56 ng/g). Naphthalenes (indicators of the petroleum origin of hydrocarbons) accounted for 46–53%; however they dominated not only in the sediments of the Ambarnaya and Daldykan rivers, but also in the Norilka River and at the mouth of the Pyasina River, which may result from other sources of soil pollution (erosion of coastal sediments, barrels from fuel and lubricants, etc.).

The assemblage of fossil fish from of the Campanian deposits (Upper Cretaceous) in the locality Beloe Ozero consists of representatives of 20 taxa, of which 15 are common with North America. This confirms the assumption about a free mutual exchange between the European and North American marine ichthyofauna at the end of the Cretaceous period.

We present a brief overview of the life and work of Academician Alexander Petrovich Karpinsky, one of the founders and a director of the Russian Geological Committee (1885–1903), the first elected President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925), whose 175th anniversary is celebrated in 2022. A.P.Karpinsky was one of the most prominent personalities of his time, standing at the origins of the geological survey and science institutions in Russia. The principles and traditions of geological mapping laid by him are now developed by the successor of the Geological Committee — the Russian Geological Research Institute.

В 2021 г. вышла книга ведущего отечественного и мирового специалиста в области эволюционной антропологии и этологии человека, члена-корреспондента РАН Марины Львовны Бутовской, написанная в соавторстве с ее талантливой ученицей, кандидатом биологических наук Викторией Викторовной Ростовцевой. Авторы представили обзор современных методов и результатов исследований в области изучения альтруизма и кооперации. Настоящий труд чрезвычайно полезен для русскоязычного читателя, так как в нем рассмотрены все существующие в мире этологические школы, ведущие исследования в данном направлении. Важное достоинство издания — обширная библиография, изложенная на 95 страницах. Благодаря этому любой читатель непременно найдет в книге интересующий его аспект и сможет более углубленно ознакомиться с тематикой, воспользовавшись богатым ссылочным аппаратом.