Central-type morphostructures with continental, intermediate and oceanic types of Earth crust were designated in the continental margin in the East Asia in the last decades. In the initial stages of the study of the Japan Sea region (JR) structural interpretation of topographic and satellite imagery was carried out to identify ore control (endogenous mineralization, diamonds, etc.) zones hidden basement faults and magmatic focal structures and fault systems on the continent and on the bottom of the Sea of Japan. In these studies, lineament analysis was performed based on the complex of geomorphological, geological and geophysical methods and geological mapping. Later it was successfully used in the development of models for the formation of marginal seas of the Western-Pacific continent – ocean transition zone, which are regarded as lithospheric vortex structures. In the JR: 1) three vortex morphostructures were recognized – the Japan Sea (JS), Nizhneamur (NA) and Sunlyao (SL), 2) two structural units were found: the lithospheric and mantle ones, comprising, respectively, the tectonic frame and vortex structures, closely related to the underlying asthenosphere. The JS morphostructure reflects the process of opening of the Sea of Japan as a result of the interaction of the Eurasian and Pacific plates. NA was interpreted as an intermountain basin, bordered upon the Sunlyao vortex type oil and gas basin in the West. Oil and gas Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary basins are developed in the JR, representing lithospheric vortexes. Lineament analysis offers new ways to predict the migration of carbohydrates in the Earth’s crust and reveals the places of their accumulation. This method can be used in the process of the preparatory phase in the study of petroleum potential of the Western Pacific marginal seas and the Arctic basins.

Specific features of the use of terms used in the integrated assessment of the territory from environmental positions in the practice of ecological-geomorphological mapping are considered. Analysis of approaches to the compilation of integrated ecological-geomorphological assessment maps has shown that the existing maps of the ecological-geomorphological state, situations, environments that exist today are difficult to compare or are incommensurable at all. As a solution to the problem, the author proposes the use of GIS-technologies that allow to repeatedly refine the already compiled maps in connection with the development of he terminology, the receipt of new ones and refinement of old data, and changes in the regulatory framework. Maps of the ecological and geomorphological state of the territories should be open to supplement and change the system, the work with which will be conducted continuously (or at regular intervals). In this respect, the existing algorithm for publishing maps will present a certain time interval for work on GIS. Such continuity will expand the possibilities of studying the dynamics of the ecological-geomorphological state of the territories.

Based on the GIS processing of aerial (1952, 1974) and satellite (2014, 2015) images and subsequent analysis of the spectral density graphs of erosion intensity, erosion rates were assessed on the shores of north-eastern Sakhalin. Spatial pattern of coastal erosion demonstrated rhythmic regularities. The erosion rhythms with a wavelength of 1.3, 2.0, 4.0, 5.6, 8.5, 11.6, 25.6, 64 km were established. Average erosion rates nowhere exceed 2 m per year. Maximum erosion rates were noted in the shores occupied by high (14–28 m) Pleistocene terraces. For these areas, typical sediment supply due to the bank erosion was estimated at 5.6–7.7 m3 per 1 m of a coastline per year. The longest (wavelength 30–60 km) rhythms of erosion rate on the aligned shores of north-eastern Sakhalin are associated with stable zones of divergence of sediment flows characterized by a reduced volume of beach sediments. The erosion rhythm with the wavelength of 1.3 km corresponds to the dimension of the large megacusp structures of the beaches. Long-term studies of the structure and morphometry of the beaches allowed to do a conclusion about the formation of a completely wave-reducing profile on sandy-gravel beaches with the volume of deposits of 70–90 m3 per 1 meter of the extension of the shore. On the most of the aggrading shores there is no deficit of sediment, but erosion is observed even at the average values of the volume of beach sediments of 140–150 m3/m. As was shown on the example of three study sites with significant sediment reserves on the upper elements of the shore profile, the erosion of such shores is caused by the uneven distribution of beach material along the coast as a result of the formation of megacusps and their systems.

In the river valleys of volcanic regions, in addition to exogenous causes, endogenous factors – primarily eruptions – are the catalyst of catastrophic processes, which are often cause volcanic mudflows – lahars, conditioned by the melting of glaciers covering the volcanoes, snow, or rainfalls that happen immediately after the eruption. This sequence of catastrophic events – “eruption – volcanic mudflow” – is quite common and well studied, but it’s obvious from detailed consideration that the formation of mudflow in the valleys of volcanically active regions is due to very diverse sources and many factors and agents can be involved in this chain. The eruption often provokes series of 2–3 interrelated and sequentially developing catastrophes, i.e. a cascade of catastrophic processes is formed. On the base of the existing examples, 15 chains of catastrophic processes in the valleys of volcanic regions are considered that are caused by diverse volcanic activity and accompanying events – seismic shocks, changes in topography of the terrain, hydrothermal activity and erosion. The final event of the chains, as a rule, is mudflow descent, that may occur repeatedly. Their formation is due to the erosion of loose material that filled the valleys or breakthroughs of the dams of the emerged pond lakes. The time for the realization of all the events of such a chain may continue through a few decades, or even centuries.

Geomorphological map provided medium-scale zoning of Moscow urban areas in the new borders. The area of Moscow was divided into geomorphological regions, districts and subdistricts, representing landforms of different ranks, reflecting the neotectonic structures. They differ in geology, including genesis, structure and thickness of the Quaternary cover, set and age of morphogenetic complexes of relief, nature of the neotectonic movements. All these conditions influence geological and geomorphological processes that complicatie the economic development of the area. Two large geomorphological regions, which differ distinctly in the landscape morphology and the neotectonic structure, belong to the category of the highest rank: 1) The Smolensk-Moscow Upland that includes such regions as Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya Upland and Moscow-Oka Plain; 2) The Meshcherskaya Lowland that includes the Central-Moscow Hills, Losinoostrovsko-Izmaylovskaya and Moscow-Yauza Plains. In turn, they are divided into areas and the subareas. Areas of river valleys are found in all regions. These are the valleys of the largest rivers – Moscow (east from Zvenigorod), Desna, Pakhra and Mocha. They all are located in the Late Cenozoic erosional-tectonic depressions, possibly, in rupture and fissuring zones. The compiled map can be used both in the studies of neotectonics structures and modern activity of the tectonic movements, and in geological engineering purposes.

The changes in the composition of river sediments of River Aktru (the North-Chuyskiy Ridge) in the first 8 km downstream from its source from the glaciers are discussed. The glaciers are retreating and the length of the river network increases due to the formation of new river channels. Study of river sediment was carried out by direct measurements of grain size composition and morphology of debris on 18 test sites. It was revealed that the Altai rivers, as well as the previously studied rivers in the Elbrus region (Caucasus Mountains), maybe divided into the altitudinal zones that differ in the duration and conditions of river channel and sediment formation. Primary riverbeds with high stream gradients and channels with waterfalls and rapids, passively fitting to the roughness of the moraine terrain are formed in the periglacial zone. Channels are covered by badly sorted and badly rounded sediments of large size. The upstream zone (zone of active exogenous processes) is characterized by decreasing stream gradients and step-like longitudinal profiles of channels. Power flow increases and helps to activate the transport of sediment and the intensity of their reworking. River sediments in channels are formed largely as a result of processing of fluvio-glacial and alluvial- mud flow deposits. Average diameter of sediment particles reduces, their roundness strongly increases. Due to the peculiarities of the climate, topography and geological structure, the Altai rivers compared with rivers in Elbrus region are characterized by smaller stream gradients, less impact of mudflows, smaller size of river sediment grains and the bigger length of the periglacial zone.

Morphostructural analysis based on interpretation of Digital Elevation Model and field studies as well as the most recent geological and geophysical data revealed the continuation of the fold-faulted morphostructures of the Northwestern Caucasus in the Kerch-Taman region and their developing under conditions of general shortening and lateral compression. The direction of compression changes the vector from the northeast to the meridional direction, which is reflected in the reorientation of the axes of folded morphostructures and geophysical anomalies from the sub-Caucasian to latitudinal. Position of the fault structures which acts as the western limitation of the North-Western Caucasus are clarified, and their kinematic characteristics are confirmed. It is established that the widely described in previous researches the Anapa-Dzhiginka transverse synsedimentary normal fault zone has a diffuse character, but it is weakly expressed in the relief. In the light of new data, the role of the boundary of the mountain structure is thought to have played by the Abrau transverse discontinuous zone located to the east. We have recognized it as a Trans-Caucasian regional disruption. It also has distinct signs of normal fault kinematics with vertical amplitude of at least 600 m in the Quaternary. It is recognize as a disruptive structure of regional significance that limits the whole orogen.

N.I. Andrusov was educated in Russia and Austria, worked at the University of Vienna, made a series of routes with Eduard Suess, communicated with G.V. Abich and Zittel; worked in Zagreb, in Italy – Venice, Bologna, Pisa, Milan, Karst; in Paris and Romania. In Russia. he worked at the universities of St. George's (Tartu), Petersburg, Odessa, Kiev and Simferopol. He conducted field research in the Crimea (valley of River Sudak, Kerch Peninsula), Taman, Trans-Caspian deserts – Kara-Bogaz-Gol, Mangyshlak, Ustyurt. In the years 1890 and 1891, he participated in two marine expeditions in the Black Sea. In the last years, N.I. Andrusov worked in the Geological Committee in St. Petersburg (1913–1918) and in the newly opened Tavrichesky University in Simferopol (1918–1920). Here, a cohort of glorious domestic scientists collected, such as V.I. Vernadsky – the Crimean University in Simferopol bears his name now, V.A. Obruchev, P.P. Sushkin, A.A. Baykov, V.I. Palladin, B.D. Grekov, G.N. Vysotsky, V.L. Ryzhkov, I.E. Tamm, A.F. Ioffe, Ya.I. Frenkel, R.I. Gelvit, E.V. Wulf, S.P. Popov, V.I. Luchitsky, N.I. Kuznetsov, D.I. Shcherbakov and others. Andrusov left detailed geomorphological descriptions of the Crimean peninsula and the west of Central Asia.