V. V. Beloussov

Infobox_Scientist
name = Vladimir Vladimirovich E. Beloussov
birth_date = 1907
death_date = 1990
residence = Russia
nationality =
field = Geologist
work_institution = Institute of Physics of the Earth
alma_mater =
doctoral_students =
prizes =
footnotes =

Vladimir Vladimirovich E. Beloussov (1907-1990) was an Earth scientist in the Soviet Union, and a prominent advocate of alternatives to the theories of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading during the period of the 20th century in which debate on these subjects was most intense [Citation
last1 = Hancock | first1 = Paul L.
last2 = Skinner | first2 = Brian J.
last3 = Dineley | first3 = David L.
title = The Oxford Companion to The Earth
publisher = Oxford University Press
year = 2000
isbn = 0-19-854039-6 ] .

Beloussov was a member of the Institute of Physics of the Earth in Moscow, and a foreign member of Geological Society of London. During the 1960s he led three expeditions to the Rift Valley of East Africa to study continental structure and the Earth's mantle. These trips fuelled his idea that continental crust was transformed to oceanic crust by widespread processes involving basic magmas.

Although his theories were ultimately unsuccessful within the scientific community, he was an important figure in the development of the Earth sciences within the Soviet union following the Second World War.

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