Suspended sediment flux is one of the objective and sufficiently accurate measures of the erosion activity in basins. Using the database for mean monthly values of water and suspended sediments runoff created for 460 rivers of the territory of the former USSR, the ratio of channel and basin components of erosion was analyzed. For this purpose the author proposed the special hydrological method (published early). For all analyzed river basins the share of riverbed erosion (δr) calculated by suspended sediment fluxes doesn’t exceed 15%. It amounts to 10.4±1.5% for the plain (lowland) rivers, to 4.9±0.9% for the low-altitude mountain rivers, and to 4.0±0.8% for the middle-altitude mountain rivers. The average δr for the whole Northern Eurasia is 7.2±0.8%.

The ratio of channel and basin (δb) components depends distinctly on the landscape-climatic conditions, especially on latitudinal zoning. Thus, within the plains of Northern Eurasia the biggest δr occurs in the zones of tundra, taiga and mixed forests – more than 15–16% (15.0±9.6% in the tundra zone, 16.6±3.1% in the zone of taiga and mixed forests). In arid zones this value on the average does not exceed 5% (4.5±1.3 % in the steppes, 0.8% in the semi-deserts). Intermediate areas have a share of channel products of 5 to 10% (8.9±2.0% in the zone of broad-leaf forests, 5.2±1.6% in the forest-steppe zone). The same trend is observed in the low mountains but less distinctly than in the plains. There is a hyperbolic relationship between a total suspended sediment flux and its riverbed component. This dependence is clearly pronounced in the plains of the Northern Eurasia, but diminishes with increasing elevation of river basins. It’s shown also that the lithological factor (surface rocks’ composition) doesn’t play a significant role in the spatial variability of the δb/δr ratio.

There are three levels of forecasting channel deformations: for rivers’ reaches of considerable length, for some forms of the channel, and for the local forms of the channel topography. Author suggests classifi cation of forecasts depending on the time scales of the processes, on natural factors and anthropogenic pressures (current, seasonal, multi-year, long-term, perspective forecasts). Among the methods and techniques of the forecasting there are hydrological-morphological analysis of river channels, construction of QI-charts, identifying trends in the development of channels by comparison of the different age mapping plans, maps, and satellite images, obtaining hydromorphometric dependencies, calculations by empirical formulas, paleochannel reconstruction, using the sediment balance and water discharge/water level curves. For each type of forecasts their accuracy and the source material were characterized, the possible applications were substantiated. The time limitations of the calculations by the analytical formulas were shown.

Morphology and morphometry of the buried and contemporary valleys bottoms in two mountain placer districts of the Eastern Siberia were analyzed. The Lena district is located within Vitima–Patom plateau on the right bank of the Vitim river, the Kular one is located in the interfluve of the rivers Yana and Omoloy. Using the topographic maps and paleogeomorphological schemes compiled on the basis of drilling data, we defined the morphodynamic types of channels, morphometric parameters (the width of the bottom step, the bend deflection of the meander) and the morphology of the bottoms of the buried and modern valleys. The patterns of their change were traced during several geological periods with different climatic conditions specified by paleolandscape method.

Morphological and morphometric characteristics of the bottoms and beds of mountain valleys depend on the altitudinal zonation. In the mid-mountain relief of the Lensky district, even at the considerable changes of climate, morphodynamic type of riverbed, bottom morphology and morphometric parameters of buried and modern valleys are practically identical. More significant is the impact of climate change on the bottoms of valleys and channels in the Kular district. Here, in the relief of low-mountains and plateaus, with a cooling of the climate and the decrease of rainfall, the width of the bottoms of the modern valleys is significantly reduced compared to buried valleys, formed in warm humid climate of the Paleogene.

Using the results of long-term observations on the mountain river Bzyb (Caucasus) the mechanism underlying these differences was revealed. It is associated with the intensity of deformation of bed forms depending on the nature of the relief terrain and water availability.

It is established that the reconfigurations of the river beds in the Middle Amur lowland are defi ned by irregular flows during the year. Their main intensity occurs during the summer and autumn rain floods. The plan reconfigurations comprise the rise and development of meanders. Free meanders are predominant; they occasionally alternate with the adapted, broken and sometimes embedded ones. The reconfigurations of the river beds occur due to the two main processes. The development of segmented bends is associated with the growth of the curvature of the channel and of the bend deflection. During the development of omega-shaped meanders they are moving gradually downstream without significant change in their shapes and sizes.

All the river islands of the middle Amur lowland form 4 groups: 1) the islands confined to the relatively straight section of the riverbed; 2) the islands formed in the points of channel braiding; 3) the bend islands; 4) the islands formed as a result of the floodplain braiding.

The results of studies indicate the accumulative origin of the islands (except for the fourth group). Their dynamics consists of seasonal variations of their shape and size at a relatively constant spatial position, and, at the same time, depends on the stages of development of bends and straight portions of the channel.

The Sungacha river valley was laid in clay-loamy sediments of the Lake Khanka. Its meanders are dominantly steep with a complex configuration. The development of the Sungacha riverbed (activation or deceleration of the riverbed deformations) in the recent past was affected by fluctuations in the water level of the Lake Khanka. The Sungacha channel runoff, rate of bank erosion and riverbank deformations were rosen with increase of water level in the lake. By reducing of the water level the channel runoff was decreasing and deformations were slowing. Today, however, banks erosion and riverbed deformations ceased almost throughout the river except for the river mouth. Reducing the rate of riverbed deformations had begun in the second half of the XX century as a result of reducing the channel runoff due to increased water intake for agriculture and the growth of the sand bar in the Sungacha river mouth. However the possibility of the channel deformations growth is maintained due to both natural reasons (increase in water content of the rivers on the Khanka plain), and the weakening of anthropogenic impact on the lake and the rivers.

Multilayered karst systems of both above- and underground types were formed on the Yucatan Peninsula at the absolute heights from -150 m offshore to more than 2000 m in the surrounding mountains. Several floors of karst topography were identified: shelf (Mesoamerican Reef) with flooded caves and cenotes; coastal areas with shallow caves and cenotes and dense network of flooded tunnels; the transition zone – sloping plain with deeper cenotes, caves and rare tunnels; hilly northern central part with the rare deep cenotes and caves and polje; Peten plateau with fragments of dry valleys, polje, caves; hilly-low mountains framing with inselberg karst, caves and partially underground rivers; mountains with numerous waterfalls, systems of extremely deep caves, underground rivers, polje. Multi-floor structure of underground karst forms are mainly due to fluctuations of sea level: a periodic drainage of the territory and changes of erosion basis had led to incise of surface and underground watercourses. As a result karst process extended to the entire zone of active water exchange. The most rapid formation of cavities was in the areas of halocline fluctuations. Numerous fractured zones of different origins were a decisive in the rise, development and spatial features of karst systems.

Researches of floodplain relief were surveyed on the upper Kama from the Bondyug village to the Vishera mouth. Current aerial photographs, space images and topographic maps were used An absolute and relative elevation, the ratio of low levels of Kama river and the edges of the water surface of oxbow lakes, the radii of curvature of oxbow lakes, old river beds and dry ones can be used as morphometric characteristics of floodplain topography, refl ecting the geomorphological differences and the uniqueness of different age floodplain generations. The most stable geomorphological indications of identity, by which one may establish and if necessary adjust relative age of the floodplain generations are present in the first, third and sixth generations.

The distribution curve of the heights and hypsographic curve of the Earth were compiled on the basis of the current data on the surface elevation and the bedrock topography of our planet. The dataset included the satellite data, bathymetry data for the World Ocean and the bedrock topography of Greenland and Antarctica – the most important glaciers of our planet. The results show that taking into account the ice cover has a significant impact on the shape of the curves The greatest differences are in the ranges of heights between 1500 and 4000 m and between –1000 and –200 m. According to calculations, the average altitude of the land surface and the stone surface is 800 m and 605 m, respectively.

A detailed analysis of the relief structure and development of gravitational and fluvio-gravitational processes in a valley of the Mzymta river basin (Western Caucasus) was fulfilled using digital elevation models created on the basis of materials of laser scanning. We discovered and mapped a giant complex landslide with syndynamical block-and-ground flow. The genetic and age relationship of processes of various types and resulting landforms and sediments were determined.

The landslide has a volume of about 32 million m3 , thickness up to 70 m; its body was displaced at a distance of 150–500 m to the WNW direction over the slip surface with inclination about 12–15°. The formation of the landslide we can presumably associate with the seismic impulse with an azimuth of 280–290°, which occurred about 830–950 A. D. Judging by the orientation of the landslide, the earthquake trigger can be a slip along the Main Caucasian fault. Simultaneously with the landslide the outburst of stone-ground mass down the valley of brook Pslushonok occurred (11–12 million m3 ). Mudflow material from the slopes of the left (southern) side of the valley constitutes a significant part of the volume of the terrace formed. The mudflow also filled the bottom of the Pslushonok valley and the part of the Psluh river valley below the mouth of the brook (the total length being 7.2–7.4 km) and created a dam across the Psluh valley, which was partly eroded after this event.

A great scientist of the XX century academician I.P. Gerasimov was a geographer-generalist. Geomorphology, Quaternary geology, lithology, geochemistry, tectonics and seismotectonics, paleogeography, soil science, biogeography is a partial list of his scientific interests, among which the geomorphology was the leading one. I.P. Gerasimov identified seven major groups of his geomorphological and paleogeographical works, of which the first five are written according to the results of geomorphological research: new ideas in regional studies, new dimensions in traditional problems, new methodological approaches, scientific fundamentals of structural geomorphology and geomorphological stage in the development of the Earth. Within the latter there are three macrocycle: global peneplain formation stepped denudation relief formation and over-planet development of terraced plains. The huge is the contribution of I.P. Gerasimov in the study of glacial, periglacial and arid morphosculpture.

Всероссийская конференция с международным участием “Геодинамические процессы и природные катастрофы. Опыт Нефтегорска”, организованная Институтом морской геологии и геофизики (ИМГиГ) ДВО РАН при поддержке РФФИ и Правительства Сахалинской области, проходила с 26 мая по 7 июня 2015 г. в г. Южно-Сахалинске. В ней приняли участие более 170 человек (рис. 1), из них 9 из Японии (Kimata F., Ichiyanagi M., Shigefuji M., Takahashi H., Takai N., Nishimura Y., Nakamura Y., Kagami H., Kasahara M.) и 1 из ЮАР (Kijko A.). Российские специалисты представляли научные институты, вузы, научно-производственные и иные организации как самого Сахалина, так и Санкт-Петербурга, Москвы, Иркутска, Биробиджана, Петропавловска-Камчатского, Магадана, Улан-Удэ, Хабаровска, Владивостока, Новосибирска, Нерюнгри. Наряду с геологами – сейсмологами, тектонистами и вулканологами, в конференции приняли участие и географы – океанологи, геоморфологи, палеогеографы, ландшафтоведы и др., что обусловлено широким спектром природных катастроф, вызываемых геодинамическими процессами. К конференции были изданы материалы докладов в двух томах.

В мае 2015 г. состоялась традиционная встреча геоморфологического сообщества России, стран СНГ и ближнего зарубежья – Всероссийская конференция “VII Щукинские чтения. Геоморфологические ресурсы и геоморфологическая безопасность: от теории к практике”. С 1985 г. один раз в пять лет это значимое для геоморфологов мероприятие организуется и проводится кафедрой геоморфологии и палеогеографии географического факультета МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова. Прошедшая встреча стала юбилейной, ведь именно в 2015 г. исполнилось 130 лет со дня рождения выдающегося отечественного геоморфолога – основателя кафедры геоморфологии и палеогеографии профессора, доктора географических наук Ивана Семеновича Щукина, неоднократно отмечавшего высокую значимость тематических встреч для развития нашей науки. Вот уже тридцать лет в рамках Щукинской конференции рассматриваются актуальные вопросы фундаментальных и прикладных геоморфологических и палеогеографических исследований. Тематика конференции меняется, отражая этапы развития нашей науки, изме-нение специфики исследований, а также актуальные потребности общества. В 2015 г. темой конференции стали проблемы геоморфологической безопасности и геоморфологических ресурсов, в частности, рассматривались концептуальные основы использования достижений науки о рельефе для удовлетворения потребностей современного общества и сохранения окружающей среды. Обеспечение безопасности природопользования – актуальная задача в рамках перехода к устойчивому развитию. Научно обоснован междисциплинарный подход к решению проблемы, основанный на синтезе частных концепций безопасности, разрабатываемых техническими и естественными науками. В кругу этих актуальных для общества вопросов есть место и геоморфологическим исследованиям, что неоднократно подчеркивалось на конференции.

С 2 по 4 июля 2015 г. в Барнауле проходила Региональная конференция Международной ассоциации геоморфологов (МАГ / IAG), организованная на базе Алтайского государственного университета при поддержке МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова. Председатель оргкомитета – декан географического факультета АГУ проф. Г.Я. Барышников – в мае 2015 г. был избран Президентом Ассоциации геоморфологов России (АГР), а заместитель председателя – доцент А.В. Панин (МГУ) – секретарем АГР. Официальным языком конференции, как это принято МАГ, был английский.