Comprehensive data on biogenic factor significance show it to be of great importance for the relief formation on the land. Organisms influence the continental relief formation in both direct and indirect way. Biogenic relief on the land follows the laws of latitudinal and altitudinal zonality. Anthropogenic relief formation may be considered as a variety of biogenic relief formation.

A concept is discussed which ascribes a leading role in mountain relief formation in many mountain countries of Eurasia to the processes of block upheaval and growth of large highlands and plateau (so called median masses); the processes produced at the same time compression in inter-block areas (geosynclinal troughs) and formation vast plicated mountain systems there. Examples from the African-Arabian plate and other regions confirm the concept.

A new method is introduced for studies of small erosional landforms buried in loess on the Russian Plain. The landform evolution in space and time (from its initiation through a series of stability stages and paleocatenas development to the final infilling) is reconstructed on the basis of two and more cross»protiles of the same landform exposed in a retreating wall of working quarry. Definition of age and morphology of fossil balkas, linear hollows and depressions is based on the interglacial catena developed in floors and slopes of the paleo-landforms. The method has been tested when studying the Mikulino buried balkas on the Central Russian Upland.

A conclusion drawn by a team of the Moscow State University (Golosov V.N., Ostrova l.V., Silantyev A.N., Shkuratova L.G.) on the increase of erosion by factor of 2,5 to 3 during the last 30-35 years within the steppe and forest-steppe of the East European Plain is erroneous in the authors opinion. Suspended load measurements in the forest and forest-steppe in the east of European Russia do not show any acceleration of the erosion. The paper discusses a series of reasons which may account for the error in the conclusion. The question - whether the erosion rate rises, falls, or remains stable - is still open.

A recent trend in the erosion-accumulation processes is analysed using various approaches, such as quantitative analysis of spatial-temporal variations in the main factors of erosion; natural stationary observations of the soil erosion on slopes, some indirect methods of estimation of erosion and sedimentation rates. The best results might be obtained using all the methods simultaneously. Most promising seems to be estimation of the processes rate based on radioisotopes. A few examples are given of the erosion and sedimentation trends throughout the last 100 to 150 years in different natural zones of the Russian Plain.

The simplest procedures of the trend analysis reveal anomalies in the top and base surfaces and in the depth and density of dissection within the area of the Istra morphostructural knot (western part of the Moscow region). New variant of the knot boundaries is suggested, delineating the area of maximum anomalies. Geomorphological analysis of the territory suggests an interaction between the tectonic elements and the glacial morphogenesis at the southern boundary of the Istra knot dated to the Moscow glacial time (the Middle Pleistocene).

A cartometric analysis of the maps of the dissection depth and density and regionalization of the Ukraine and Moldova territory according to the erosional risk resulted in a number of indices which describe spatial morphological structure of the regions. Measurements of areas and boundary lengths of elementary units on the first map (that is elementary typological units) were used as a basis of the indices calculation. Methods of the calculation and maps and diagram compilation are described for each index and their sum.

A hydro-morphological characteristic of the Argun' River has been developed taking into account river channels types and results of the river's studies in 1988.

Glacial morphosculpture at the north-west of the Russian Plain is transformed by exogenic processes since the late glacial up to the present time. The rate and direction of the transformation appeared to be different in different type of the morphosculpture, the type of relief being of more importance than the age.

3 discharge-forming landscapes are identified within the Voron River drainage basin (54.4 sq.km). The quantity of deposits moved annually down the slopes in the basin amounts to 60.3 thousand tons, some 5 thousand tons are removed from gullies onto their fans, and the river evacuates about 8 thousand tons into the Black Sea. A considerable portion of the products of denudation and river erosion is deposited on slopes, and then redeposited by streams and form floodplains.

A relief-forming role of extreme meteorological events is discussed with reference to the Barguzin Basin, erosional landform development (rills and gullies) being analysed. lt is found that the most favorable conditions for erosion exist on the inclined piedmont plains.

The paper describes inherited depressional valleys formed by the karst and piping processes on the high Quaternary terraces of the Volga River near Kazan' city. The erosional network of the paleo-Volga initiated karstification of the underlying sulfate rocks dated to the Lower Permian. After the ancient valleys had been covered by Neogene and Quaternary deposits, the piping acted within the covering mantle over the karst zones, as a result, the ancient erosional network has been revealed on the present-day surface.

Hydrodynamic conditions, type of river channel and erosional sculpture of bedrock control the mechanism of formation of genetic metal concentrations. Laboratory studies indicated different distance of transportation for metal particles different in size. The latter depends on the stream order and its hydrodynamic indices. The regularities revealed permit to increase the efficiency of prospecting.

Книга о роли снега и льда в природе нашей планеты - Котляков В.М. Мир снега и льда. М.: Наука, 1994. 286 с.

В мае 1996 года исполнилось 80 лет со дня рождения известного ученого, доктора географических наук, почетного члена Русского Географического общества С.С. Коржуева.

20 июня 1996 г. исполнилось 60 лет профессору, заведующему кафедрой геоморфологии и палеогеографии географического ф-та МГУ Геннадию Александровичу Сафьянову.