University web address: http://www.science.gov.az/en/geology/index.htm

The Geology Institute of Azerbaijan (GIA) was funded in 1938 and now it is the largest scientific institution in the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) wholly occupied with fundamental research, as well as applied development in various fields of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, ecogeology and other Earth sciences. There are 24 research departments & 2 laboratories, a Natural-History Museum, the Centre of geodynamic research & seismic monitoring (formed in 2003 by CRDF grant support, USA), a National Data Centre (formed in 2002 within Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Organization ratified by Azerbaijan on the 2nd February, 1999), as well as 13 functional subdivisions of scientific service in the Institute structure. The staff at the Institute is composed of over 267 scientists, among whom over 157 Ph.D & Dr.Sc., 4-full members & 9-associate members of ANAS. The Geology Institute of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) houses strong and varied expertise in remote sensing of geological hazards and modelling Earth processes (geodynamics, hydrology, geotechnics, etc.). Generally, at the moment, the Institute has become the major scientific institute of ANAS, fully engaged in fundamental and applied research in the field of Earth Sciences. Since its establishment in 1938, some laboratories and departments of the Institute of Geology have been devoting their research to the study of physics and dynamics of mud volcanoes on the Absheron peninsula and have looked into the manifestation and perturbations processes. In 2010, the number of outstanding scientists specialized in the field of mud volcanism were awarded the State Prize of the Azerbaijan Republic by the President of Azerbaijan for the series of contributions titled «Mud volcanism, oil and gas content in the South Caspian Basin».
In regard to the present project, most of the research at the Geology Institute of Azerbaijan is focused on related topics such as: GPS surveying of Azerbaijan, recent kinematics and dynamics of Caucasus and Caspian regions, gravity mapping and numerical analyses gravity data, experimental studies of the tidal and non-tidal variations of the gravitational field, gravity model of Earth’s crust of the Caucasus region and the South Caspian Basin, spatial-temporal characterization of seismicity and seismic hazard assessment of Azerbaijan, fractal properties of spatial distributions of earthquakes and active faults; focal mechanism analysis and stress state evaluation of Caucasus, engineering seismology and geodynamics, microgravity and microtremor measurements.