Inselbergs in the platform regions may appear due to tectonic as well as due to the long-term action of denudation processes. Likewise some inselbergs in the Caucasus were formed by tectonic upheaval while others are the result of erosion and denudation. There are several inselbergs in the vicinity of the cities of Nakhichevan', Mineral Waters and Kazakh. In the latter region one can see the different stages of inselbergs formation by exogenous processes. The likeness of tectonic inselbergs morphology and that of erosion-denudation inselbergs allows to think of convergence of different geomorphologic regimes.

The Great Altai is discordant to the structure of Central-Asian orogenic belt being the interlink between the Tien-Shan and the Sayan-Baikal-Stanovoi mountain systems. The Great Altai is characterized by complex inner zonality, which may be seen in the Mongol-Altai mountain raise and series of diagonal (N-W) and lateral ridges. The formation of the Great Altai was multistage with the consecutive interference of these orogenic zones.

The new orographic scheme of Nepalian Himalaya is compiled. An attempt was made to regionalize the Main Himalayan ridge. Some morphometric characteristics and morphologic peculiarities of different parts of the mountain land are described.

Tectonic relief of the Nepalian Himalaya is characterizes in comparison with its geologic structure. The origin of the mountain system of Himalaya - the largest orogene - is determined by several geodynamic factors, of which the interaction of lithosphere blocks in the Indo-Asian segment of the Earth is the main.

The origin of lake basins in the middle and high mountains of Central and Eastern Himalaya is under consideration. Differentiated tectonic movements, gravitational and glacial processes are the cause of basin's formation. Special attention is paid to the hazard of the inrush of the periglacial lakes.

Coastal plains of Taman peninsular are composed of loess loam. The presence of Karangatian fossils in the rock mass and on the surface rakes it possible to suppose the high (15-20 m) position of the Black Sea level in one of the stages of Karangatian time. The author considers the coastal plains of Taman' peninsular as the Middle Pleistocene lagoon-transgressive terrace, composed of lagoon-alluvial sediment of Paleokuban' river. This new revealed terrace is correlative to It alluvial terraces of Paleokuban' and Don and also to deposits of lake Burtasskoye, which during the Middle Pleistocene was set in the Manytch depression.

The long-term observations of the suspended load runoff, data on factors of erosion, published materials and Internet data were used for determining the regions with cetiain trends of erosion. In the Northern Asia the main factor of erosion changes is climate while in the eastern, southern, south-eastern and south-western regions of Asia it is human activity (deforestation and reforestaton, scarifying, regressing ac.).

The paper is emphasized on the problem of determining of the North-East Baltic Shield morphological structure. It consists of different rank landforms, which may be distinguished by their area and altitudes. For this purpose the generalization of topographic surface was made by the method of different scale averaging of relief and the distribution of the heights above sea level was used. The main regional hypsometric boundaries of landforms were determined. As a result the morphological zoning of the northern part of the Baltic Shield was carried out.

variations. Global changes of nowadays manifest itself in climate warming, in sharp increasing of marine surface positive temperature anomalies, in sea level rise. The modern climatic conditions approach to a kind of climatic optimum like the middle Holocene optimum named "Atlantic period", when "Seboruko" terrace, consisted mainly of coral fragments, was formed. Probably, the sea level rise after reaching its extreme will decrease as it happened before. Like the several last analogous events, this phase could take one-two centenary. Corals undergo now strong temperature impact, which manifests in their decouloration. Sea level decrease even during short period may cause wide destruction of coral reef tops followed by intensive accumulation of carbon material on the seabed. In accordance with the regularities of the coastal dynamics this loose material will move to and along the coastline and form accumulative relief such as beaches and terraces. Being within geochemical sealand barrier in equator-tropical climate these landforms will undergo the intensive cementation processes. As a result new terrace will be formed like Late Holocene "Seboruko" terrace.

The correlation between bank recession (mean-maximum and relative) and river order according to A. Scheidegger is analyzed. Author considers different channel types, stream gradients, lithology and shore cutting mechanisms.

The structure of quaternary deposits of the III fluvial terrace above flood-plain of Upper Don and Nepryadva river (northern part of Middle-Russian highland) was studied. The eroded Mezinian loess-soil complex overlies the periglacial alluvium and slope-balka deposits. Two Middle-Valdai soils (Monastyrskaya and Bryanskaya) have been distinguished in the upper loess part of the section. Their C¹⁴ dating are 29100±340 BP and 24400±700 BP. The history of buried paleoslope evolution was reconstructed. It underwent the whole Late Moscow-Mikulino-Early Valdai erosion cycle. Paleoslopc does not manifest in the recent relief, but the structure of recent soil cover derives from it.

Жизнь в исследованиях (к 90-летию со дня рождения Л.И. Маруашвили)

Наталья Владимировна Хмелева

Геннадий Петрович Бутаков (1942-2001)