Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863–1945) and his ‘descriptive mineralogy’

The Russian geoscientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863–1945) widely known as the founder of biogeochemistry, the co-founder of geochemistry, and for authoring the concepts of the biosphere and the noosphere, began his scientific career as a mineralogist. His novel chemical–genetic perspective on the formation of minerals changed the objectives of the mineralogical sciences, but these ideas have until now been largely ignored. However, later on in his career, this novel perspective led Vernadsky to the recognition of the significance of the activity of organisms and humankind as important mineralogical and therewith geological force.