In the past century a series of volcanic eruptions took place in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, during which the outpourings of lava were committed, blocking the significant territory. Lava flows cause the long-term effects due to the radical change of the relief, the creation of a new substrate, which is difficult for settlement and features extra duration successions. The article describes 7 eruptions of the last century on the Kuril Islands. Over the past 80 years they have occurred on 5 of the 40 active volcanoes on the Kuril Islands. Particular attention is paid to lava flows of the recent (2009) eruption on the island of Matua. The total size of territory overlapped by lava is about 4 km². The features of effusions, the scope of ecosystems destruction, the diversity of dead vegetation, the initial stages and prospects of successions are examined.

The geological, micropaleontological, chronometric data and modeling constructions are presented, allowing to determine the rate of relative shoreline movement considered for Kuusema region, located on the Karelian coast of the White Sea. Object of study is the sediments that have been accumulated in the basins of small lakes located on the coast, in conditions of different sedimentary environments, which have been changing here during the deglaciation and in Holocene under the influence of glacioisostatic land elevation, eustatic sea level changes and tectonic movements of the earth's crust.

The history of agricultural development of Trans-Onega landscapes (Republic of Karelia) with the use of landscape-dynamic approach is examined. On the example of representative «Padmozersky» key site (area of 52 km²) the current structure of landscapes was analyzed, the reconstruction of landscape for the period of maximum agricultural development was carried out, the main directions of the dynamics of natural systems were defined.

Based on the methodology developed by the RSMC the frequency of droughts in three gradations (weak, moderate, severe) was studied for the territory of Azerbaijan. It is shown that since the second half of the XX century the repeatability of dry years has increased dramatically. The reason may be associated with the increase of solar activity, which rises almost linearly since the XX century. The correlation coefficients between the number of sunspots and repeatability of droughts were calculated for 8 representative weather stations in Azerbaijan. It is shown that the orographic features of the territory have a significant impact on the values of correlation coefficients.

The article considers the Hyperborea map in the interpretation of Mercator, 1569, and draws attention to the unrealistic geomorphological situation depicting 4 rivers flowing from one water body. This suggests that this map is a fiction of its originator or its predecessor, from which it was borrowed.

The trend towards the radical «revaluation of values» in national geography dates back to the last years of the XX century. The article continues the discussion that has arisen in connection with the publication of E. Yu. Kolbovsky in «Izvestia RGO» (2013), and contains some additions to the statements of his opponents. E. Yu. Kolbovsky claims that the landscape is a cultural («man-made») phenomenon, and a natural landscape does not exist; the classical landscape studies is said to be based on myths. He tries to strike out the entire history of landscape science and sets the «neo-landscape-science» in opposition, the subject, the scientific objectives and methods of which are not defined. The personal experience of theoretical and applied landscape research of A. G. Isachenko since the late 1940s permits to qualify the position of E. Yu. Kolbovsky as a destructive one.