Description of the attraction
The creation of the museum of geology and mineralogy took place in the 1930s with the support of the Kola scientific department "Tietta" of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was formerly called the Khibiny mountain station at the USSR Academy of Sciences. A lot of effort was spent on the development of this project, which went not only to the creation of the museum, but also to its further development and promotion. The main figure was Igor Vladimirovich Belkov - Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, as well as an Honored and Respected Scientist. For fifty years, Igor Vladimirovich was the director of the famous Geological Institute, as well as the head of all mineralogical studies that were carried out within the walls of this institution. For various periods of time the museum was headed by Novokhatskaya Tamara Valentinovna and Fedotova Margarita Grigorievna.
In the museum fund storages there are about seven thousand different kinds of samples of ores, minerals and rocks belonging to the Kola Peninsula. The museum's exhibition consists of the following departments: collections of ores and various kinds of minerals, a systematic collection of minerals, collections of rocks, collection collections of the latest minerals discovered in the area of the Kola Peninsula.
The listed collections are the most complete collection of available minerals on the Kola Peninsula, among which there are new, rare, different from others or unique in their kind stones, presented in various shapes, sizes, colors, which gives them great value and, accordingly, arouses considerable interest in numerous visitors to the museum.
If we take into account the systematic collection of minerals, the number of which reaches 1200 units, then it is located in museum showcases according to the following classifications: sulfides, native elements, sulfates, carbonates, halides, hydroxides and oxides, silicates and phosphates. The representatives of the unique exposition of minerals from the Lovozero and Khibiny massifs are of the greatest value, which is determined by their exceptional beauty, as well as their diversity - all this makes the representatives of this category a real mineralogical value.
As you know, the Kola Peninsula has always been a region rich in mining, in the territorial zone of which there are the largest deposits of copper, apatite, cobalt, nickel, iron, various rare metals, mica, abrasive, high-alumina and ceramic raw materials, ornamental and facing stone. The museum presents more than eight hundred representatives of the minerals and ores of this area.
The Museum of Geology and Mineralogy has a unique collection of metamorphic, magmatic, and sedimentary rocks from different areas of the Kola Peninsula, the number of which exceeds nine hundred specimens. Of the 250 copies proposed for viewing, 200 were first discovered on the territory of the Kola Peninsula, which can be examined in detail in one of the museum's exhibition halls, and 85 minerals were discovered by employees of the Geological University.
It is worth noting that the museum is engaged in active scientific activities related to the compilation of catalogs, collections of minerals, registers and lists of minerals located on the Kola Peninsula, taking into account a computer database, and also actively participates in museum meetings. The educational activities of the museum are connected with the popularization of knowledge related to the mineralogy of the Kola Peninsula among a wide circle of numerous visitors to the museum and general educational work presented by practical exercises with students of geological faculties.
