(All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Geophysics), scientific research institute of the Ministry of Geology of the USSR, established in Moscow in 1944. The institute has branches in Baku, Krasnodar, and Oktiabr’skii and a division in Ramenskoe (Moscow Oblast). A permanent active expedition tests the validity of theoretical and methodological scientific assumptions and tests and approves new geophysical equipment. The chief departments deal with seismology, gravity, magnetism, electric geophysical exploration, industrial geophysics, and computer technology (for processing geophysical prospecting data). The institute does research in the scientific development of methods and technical resources for exploring and surveying petroleum and gas deposits by geophysical methods. Research results are published in the collections Prikladnaia geofizika (Applied Geophysics, since 1945), Razvedochnaia i promyslovaia geofizika (Exploratory and Industrial Geophysics, 1950-64), and Razvedochnaia geofizika (Exploratory Geophysics, since 1964).
M. P. POLSHKOV