Anders K. Orvin

Who was Anders K. Orvin?

Anders Kristian Orvin was a Norwegian geologist and explorer.

He was born in Hattfjelldal as a son of Ole Tobias Olsen and Christine Bernhardine Dahl. His father was a pastor in Nordland until 1905 when the family moved to Oslo.

Orvin finished his secondary education in 1909 and graduated from the Royal Frederick University in mineralogy in 1912. He mostly explored and worked at Spitsbergen, but had tenures in Siberia in 1914, as manager of the mines Ornehommen Molybdengruber 1915 to 1916 and Dalen Gruber from 1918 to 1921. As well as Spitsbergen his expeditions went to East Greenland and Bear Island.

He took the dr.philos. degree in 1934 on the thesis Geology of the Kings Bay Region, Spitsbergen. Among his writings are also Geology of Bear Island and Outline of the Geological History of Spitsbergen. After the war he wrote The Places of Jan Mayen.

He was hired in the Norges Svalbard- og Ishavsundersøkelser in 1928. He was acting managing director from 1945 to 1948, when it was renamed the Norwegian Polar Institute. He served as sub-director until being managing director from 1958 to 1961.