On the morphostructural nodes as places of activation of the present-day relief-forming processes

Abstract

A proposition is brought forward that morphostructural nodes are sites of increased rate of relief-forming processes (primarily fluvial erosion and alluviation and slope processes) due to their small-block structure. Both erosion and accumulation of sediments reach their maximum in the interior nodes (where lineaments of the 4th order intersect). As an illustration, several morphostructural nodes of the Russian Plain are considered which correspond to lineaments intersection within the Pachelma aulakogen. The nodes are distinguished for some peculiar features, high rates of geomorphic processes, and resulting changes in landscapes, which give grounds to identify them as an individual object of the general geographical regionalization.