Anomalous Gas Volcanism in the Black Sea

Evgen Shnyukov is an eminent Ukrainian scientist in geology, geochemistry, lithology, sedimentary ore-formation, marine geology, and minerals of the World Ocean. He is Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), Doctor of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences, Professor, Member of the International Academy of Sciences of Eurasia, Honorary Director of the Center for Problems of Marine Geology, Geoecology and Sedimentary Ore Formation of the NASU, and Head of the Ukrainian Lithology Committee. He has received many awards, including the State Award of Ukraine in Science and Technology, two State Prize of Ukraine for a series of works devoted to the World Ocean, gold medal “Leonardo da Vinci” of the International Academy of Sciences of Eurasia among many others. He has authored, coauthored, and edited over 700 scientific publications, including 50 books, and supervised over 30 PhD students. As the first scientist to recognize the need for marine geological research in Ukraine, he established the School of Marine Geology and Sedimentary Ore-Formation, and initiated a new stage in the study of sedimentary iron and manganese ores, geology of the Black and Azov Seas, as well as comprehensive geological–geophysical and metallogenic investigations of the World Ocean’s bottom sediments. He embraces a wide range of geological problems and represents a striking example of the fruitful union of science and practice. He headed a series of geological–geophysical expeditions Geological materials obtained from those expeditions led to the discovery of a submarine massif of crystalline rocks (Lomonosov Ridge), tens of mud volcanoes, and hundreds of gas seeps suggesting the presence of oil and gas beneath the Black Sea. Some of his books, such as The World of Minerals, Catastrophes in the Black Sea as well as many others have gained wide recognition and are already bibliographic rarities.

Volodymyr Kobolev Doctor of Geological Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), chief scientific workman in the Department of Regional Problems in Geophysics of the S.I. Subbotin Institute of Geophysics of NASU. Main scientific interests: Marine geophysics, Geothermics, Geotectonics, Geodynamics and evolution of the continental and oceanic lithosphere. Volodymyr Kobolev belongs to the galaxy of Ukrainian scientists who have devoted their main scientific efforts to the study of the geological structure of the lithosphere using geophysical methods. The general list of his scientific publications contains about 350 titles. Of these, more than 150 are directly devoted to the study of the structure of the oceanic lithosphere. One significant research achievement is his work on rotational rifting, which, as a consequence of the Earth's rotational motion, is accompanied by the formation of planetary paleoequatorial deep thrusts. Their intersection led to the formation, in different regions of the world, of both individual – single – riftogenic nodes and anomalous associations of these intersections, where large industrial accumulations of hydrocarbons are known. Kobolev’s most important scientific accomplishments are related to studies of gas-mud volcanism and gas hydrates of the World Ocean. He obtained fundamental results in the field of theoretical developments of the mechanism of formation of gas hydrate deposits. Based on studies of the thermodynamic regime and the localization of gas outlets to places where faults occur in the consolidated crust, he demonstrated that the abiogenic origin of hydrocarbons of the Black Sea mega-depression is a result of the interaction of powerful plume-tectonic, ascending, gas-fluid flows with various structures of the sedimentary cover and basement.

Valentina Yanko is the world leading scientist in field of marine geology and micropaleontology (foraminifera). She is Doctor of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Marine Geology, Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Paleontology of Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine; Head of the Scientific and Educational Center of Geoarchaeology, Marine and Environmental Geology, Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine; Head of the scientific school Marine Geology and Paleontology;  President of the Avalon Institute of Applied Sciences, Winnipeg, Canada. She was a founder and past-president of the International Society of Environmental Micropalaeontology, Microbiology and Meiobenthology, and she has been president/executive director/plenary speaker at numerous international conferences, head of numerous international projects and research cruises, and chairman of special sessions and symposia at IGU, EGU, GSA, INQUA congresses and other international forums. She has received many awards including Honorary Fellowship of the Geological Society of America, Certificate and Medal of the All-Ukrainian Union of Geologists, award of Excellence from Universities of Palermo and Isparta, award of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Manitoba, Canada, and some others. In 1990 she initiated a multidisciplinary program in Environmental Micropalaeontology, through which she carried out pioneering research in both field and experimentally in the "Application of microorganisms to environmental change." The geographical area of her investigations covers the southern European Seas (Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea) from the Quaternary to the present. She is author/coauthor of more than 350 scientific papers including eleven monographs? Many of which are in English. Fluent in several languages and working easily in both East and West, she is devoting her energies to bringing together internationally recognized experts on environmental micropalaeontology and the geological and archaeological history of the Black Sea and adjacent basins to integrate sedimentological, paleontological, and archaeological data, synthesise a vast amount of non-English literature, and bridge perceived and actual barriers between eastern and western researchers.