Levan Maruashvili

Levan Iosifovich Maruashvili ( born 25 October 1912, Novocherkassk, Russian Empire – 5 December 1992, Tbilisi, Georgia) was a prominent Georgian geographer. He was a Doctor of Geographical Sciences, professor, Honored Scientist of the Georgian SSR (1966) and Abkhaz ASSR, and honorary member of the Russian Geographical Society (1985). He introduced a new concept of Karstosphere into the science. Krubera Cave, which is the world’s deepest known cave , was discovered by the Georgian researchers in 1960 by the leadership of Professor Levan Maruashvili.

Biography Levan Maruashvili was born on 25 October 1912 in the town of Novocherkassk of the Don Host Oblast, to the family of engineers and road builder.

In 1941, when the Great Patriotic War broke out, Maruashvili joined the field forces. After graduation from the accelerated courses of Kharkov Commissariat Academy, Maruashvili took part in the battle by the city of Stalingrad defending the ways leading to the Caucasus. From 1943 to 1946, he was in "Stepsgeo" team fighting in high-mountains of the Caucasus and participated in military geographical expeditions in South Georgia. Being demobilized from the army in 1946, in a very short time, he got ready his dissertation - "Karst of fragmental rock, its geomorphological characteristics in the light of general karstology, Central Megrelia as an example (Western Georgia)" and successfully defended his master's degree in 1947.

Since 1947, Maruashvili worked as an assistant professor at Kutaisi Pedagogical Institute, and from 1949 to 1953, took over the Department of Geography at Sokhumi Pedagogical Institute. In 1952, after defending his Doctor's degree on the subject "South-Georgian volcanic upland (structure, relief, historical development)", he made a great contribution to the study of volcanic areas of Alpine-Mediterranean belt, which has not lost its significance up till now. he was awarded the state Prize of the Georgian SSR. and the Vakhushti Bagrationi Prize (1977). In 1985, he was awarded the state Prize of the Georgian SSR.

Works Physical Geography of Georgia, two volumes, (1969-1970); Physical Geography of the Caucasus, three volumes, (1975-1986); Basic of Cave Study: General Speleology (1973); The Paleogeographical Dictionary (1985); Geomorphology of Georgia (1971); Georgia in Anthropogene (1991).