Boris Sokolov (geologist)

Boris Sergeyevich Sokolov (Борис Серге́евич Соколов) (April 9, 1914 – September 2, 2013) was a Russian geologist and paleontologist. Sokolov authored reference works on the stratigraphy of Eastern Europe, in particular the fossil coral records, and created the concept of Vendian period, currently recognized as largely overlapping, but not fully equivalent to Ediacaran. Sokolov, the son of a village feldsher (medic), was born in Vyshny Volochyok. In 1931 he moved to Leningrad and became an apprentice electrician. A blue-collar work experience was a prerequisite for admission into the university. After a year of work Sokolov was allowed to enroll at the Department of Geology and Soil Sciences of Leningrad University. He graduated with honors in 1937 and remained there to take a course of postgraduate studies. Sokolov's early work concentrated on the stratigraphy of the Russian Platform, in particular the diagnostics of fossil corals for the identification of Carboniferous period deposits. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II Sokolov was appointed to lead a Soviet field research company in China. After two years of field work in Tian Shan, the Turpan Depression and Tarim Basin (1941–1943) he returned to Soviet Central Asia to search for petroleum deposits on the northern side of Tian Shan. In 1945 he returned to Leningrad to complete his postgraduate thesis on Chaetetida, based on his pre-war studies. In 1950 he published Chaetetida of the Carboniferous Period, followed by five reference volumes of Paleozoan Tables (1951–1955). These works earned him his doctorate. A revised edition, included in the 16-volume Foundations of Paleontology, was awarded the State Prize for 1967. In the early 1950s Sokolov joined a group of geologists tasked with the analysis of recent deep boring samples. Sokolov discovered what he believed was a hitherto unknown geographical layer preceding the Cambrian, which he called Vend (Vendian Period).