Backlund, Helge Gotrik

Born Sept. 3, 1878, in Dor-pat; died Jan. 29, 1958, in Uppsala. Geologist and pe-trologist. Graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1902.

In 1908, Backlund became curator of the Geology Museum of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1918 he became professor of geology and mineralogy in Abo (Finland), and from 1924 to 1943 he was a professor at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. His main works were on the petrology and tectonics of the Scandinavian countries and the circumpolar regions. Backlund was one of the most ardent proponents of the theory of the secondary origin of granites from sedimentary rocks under the impact of gaseous emanations. He revised the stratigraphy of the Archean rocks of the Baltic shield and established the unified cycle of the deposits of the gotho-karelid suite. Backlund investigated the geological structure of the Arctic Urals in 1909 and the tin deposits in Argentina and Bolivia from 1911 to 1913.