A generalization of the materials of a comprehensive paleogeographic study in the ancient glacial region of the Russian Plain is aimed at establishing regional features of the geomorphological structure and patterns of spatial variability of indicators. For these purposes, geological and geomorphological zoning of the territory was carried out on the basis of a systematic approach and under the control of paleogeographic expertise. On the compiled map, the territorial divisions are highlighted: against the background of different age paleogeographic zones, 4 geological provinces and 14 geologic-geomorphological regions are distinguished. Their complex characteristics are obtained by the totality of the leading geomorphological processes. Particular attention is paid to the study of the glacial relief, which plays an important role in paleogeographic reconstructions of this area. Marginal zones infrastructure of the ice sheets of different ages has been studied in detail, which makes it possible to make more exact the maximum and stadial boundaries of the Moscow and Kalinin ice sheets. Thus, regional features of the structure and composition of the morpholithogenic basis of landscapes are established. The laws of its formation are confirmed: geological and geomorphological heredity and paleogeographic conditionality. The study of regional features of the geomorphological structure of the ancient glacial region makes a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the glacial rhythm of the Pleistocene. The results of integrated geologic-geomorphological zoning facilitate the regional targeted estimation of the state of geoecological stability of geosystems and make it more justified.

An analysis of the geological and geomorphological features of the formation and preservation of gold placers in the Pribelsky placer zone located in the central part of the Belsky intermountain depression in the Southern Urals revealed the following. Valley of River Belay within Belsky depression, inheriting a zone of the Zyuratkulsky deep break, has complex two-level structure. The upper tier is represented by a wide (up to 5 km) trough-like paleovalley with complexes of polygenic and polychronic Miocene-Pliocene formations, both preserved in deep (up to 20–37 m) erosion-karst depressions and in some places coming to the surface. In Beloretsky and Burzyansky prospective sites of these complexes gold-bearing was revealed. As a result of the Eopleistocene – Early Neopleistocene phase of the neo-tectonic uplift of the mountainous part of the Bashkir Urals and subsequent river incision into the bottom of the paleo-valley to a depth of 30 to 130 m, a complex of sediments of the lower tier of the modern Belay river valley was formed. Due to the incision and reworking of goldbearing formations of the upper tier, the weight contents of gold are also established in the braid deposits of the river Belay. It has been shown that the areas of paleo-valley river Belay with karst troughs-traps of placer gold associated with zones of increased fracturing and permeability at the junctions of the submeridional and secant transverse faults. Attention is also drawn to the sites of the inheritance of the paleo-valley by a modern network with a predicted greater concentration of metal in them, even if weakly gold-bearing loose formations.

The methodology was proposed for the distinguishing of geomorphological areas on the map of the surface slopes, created from SRTM by visualization tools. Such areas are considered as parts of the image that differ in the ratios of different slopes and their relative position in space (“textureˮ). The scheme of geomorphological zoning of the Upper Dnieper basin (left bank) was built. Forty geomorphological regions with an average area of about 2.25 km 2 were allocated. It was shown that the main internal differences of the topography in the region is consistent with the regional geomorphological zonation schemes based on traditional cartographic materials. Identified differences relate to the allocation of geomorphological areas of alluvial and glacio-fluvial plains corresponding to the wide sections of river valleys. Topographic differentiation was caused by neotectonic movements, geological structure, paleogeographic peculiarities of the Quaternary period. Information was provided about the differences of geomorphic terrain regions that are not available directly from SRTM data, in particular on the distribution of density of the river network.