Museum - Geology and Minerals of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the RB Ufa

The Museum of Geology and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Bashkortostan was established in 1934 under the Bashkir Geological Exploration Trust in order to preserve for subsequent use reference samples of rocks, ores and minerals selected from stratypical sections of the Southern Urals throughout the territory of Bashkortostan, as well as rare finds of unique remains of fauna and flora, the probability of rediscovery of which in the future could become problematic. With the expansion of geological exploration and scientific-thematic research in the republic, the collection of the museum grew. In 1981, the museum acquired a stationary room in the building on Lenin Street, 47, and in 1999 - the official status of the museum on geology and minerals of the Republic of Bashkortostan under the Department for Geology and Subsoil Use of the Republic of Belarus. The custodians of the stone wealth of the museum were wonderful people, professionals – geologists, enthusiasts of their craft, loyally loving the stone and protecting it from outside encroachments. Currently, more than 3,000 samples of rocks, minerals, minerals, fossilized remains of fauna and flora are exhibited in the museum windows. Samples are placed in vertical and horizontal glazed windows of circular view with lighting, large stucco – on the stands. The museum is visited by schoolchildren, students, tourists, geologists, doctors, teachers and many others (annual attendance of 10,000 people per year). This activity contributes to the formation of a modern geological worldview among visitors, enriches with information about geological processes in the territory of the republic, deepens and expands knowledge in certain areas of geological sciences, cultivates love and frugality for natural values, i.e. instills an ecological culture so necessary for a person. Viewing the museum collections begins with the hall of the museum, which exhibits large samples of copper-coloured and gold-sulphide ores of the Bashkir Trans-Urals, new finds of fluorites of the Suran deposit, samples of Malomuynak and residential quartz of the Novotroitsky deposits. The pride of the museum is a large sample of sellaite - the magnesial difference of fluorescent feldspar, considered a mineralogical rarity. In the center of the hall there is an exhibition-column of facing and ornamental stones of Bashkortostan, identified in recent years in the process of implementing the Decree of the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan M.G. Rakhimov of September 25, 1998 No. UP-671 "On measures to increase the efficiency of using the mineral resource base of facing and ornamental stones of the Republic of Bashkortostan". Among the exhibits of this stand, in addition to the well-known granites, new varieties of natural stones are demonstrated - gabbro, dolerites and marble limestones from newly discovered deposits in recent years. The transition to the hall of regional and historical geology begins with a viewing of an art panel that reproduces on scientifically based factual material the paleogeographical situation of past epochs and periods from the Archaea to the present. In the windows of this hall, more than 750 samples of rocks of standard volume are exhibited, located according to the “Unified and Correlation Stratigraphic Schemes of the Urals”. The exposition presents samples of rocks from stratotypic sections of the Riphean deposits of the Bashkir meganticlinorium and the metamorphic complex of Uraltau, and overlapping Vendic deposits related to the formations of the upper proterozoic. Paleozoic rocks are represented by faunistically characterized deposits of the zone of linear folding, the Pre-Ural deflection and the Eastern outskirts of the Russian Platform, as well as volcanogenic and volcanogenic-sedimentary formations of the Eastern slope of the Southern Urals (the western wing of the Magnitogorsk megasynclinorium), belonging to the complexes of oceanic and island formations. Mesozoic formations are characterized by rock samples and fossil fauna of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous age (dinosaurs, ammonites, belemnites). The Cenozoic deposits are widely represented in the exposition - brown embers of the Babaevskoye deposit, quartz sands of the Tulgan retinue of the paleogene, etc. Intrusive magmatism is also reflected quite fully leukocratic granites of the Akhunov complex, light gray granites of the Mansurov deposit, various gabbro, pyroxenites, ultra-basic rocks of both the eastern and western slopes of the Bashkir Urals. The Minerals section characterizes the mineral resource base of the republic and is represented by ores of ferrous, non-ferrous, noble metals, fuel and energy raw materials, non-metals (chemical, mining raw materials, building materials, facing stones). The exposition is located on an area of 55 square meters. Bashkortostan is one of the richest regions of the Russian Federation in terms of natural conditions, the economic well-being of which is closely connected with the development of its mineral resources. The section "Colored stones and minerals" located in the third hall is the most colorful and attractive hall of the museum. Here, a large place in the exposition is occupied by a collection of South Ural jasper, both Bashkir and Oric, which have no equal in the world in terms of the richness of the color range. Jasper is represented from almost all deposits and manifestations of the republic concentrated in the Uchalinsky, Abzelilovsky, Baymak, Khaibullinsky districts. In addition to jasper, the exposition is decorated with rhodonite, white landscape diopside, mica quartzites, aventurins and agates, jades and leaflets, magnesites, barites, cherry-red piemontite porphyries (Talkasian manifestation), stromatolite limestones, etc. An important part of the museum is a lecture hall for conferences, seminars and practical classes with any audience. The educational direction provides residents with information about the geology and mineralogical riches of Bashkortostan through systematic, permanent and temporary exhibitions, thematic excursions, popular science lectures on practical mineralogy, petrography, paleontology, geology of mineral deposits. The Museum of Geology and Minerals is of deep interest to residents and guests of the Republic of Bashkortostan, is a center for the dissemination of knowledge on geology and minerals among the population and students and is always ready for a warm welcome of visitors.