THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF STRUCTURAL GEOMORPHOLOGY (TO THE 110TH BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY OF N.A. FLORENSOV)

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Florensov is a Russian scientist who is famous for his contribution to the theoretical foundations of structural geomorphology. He formulated the law of the circulation of material in the Earth's crust, which is manifested by a periodically arising lithodynamic flow, in the development cycle of which two main phases are distinguished as ascending and descending geodynamics. In our opinion, there is also the third phase, stabilization. This process is reflected in the morphological types of mountains. Considering the conditions of intracontinental orogeny, N.A. Florensov distinguished two main types: constructive and destructive. Developing this concept, he solved a number of theoretical and philosophical problems concerning the inextricable relationship between the relief and the structure of the geological substratum, its geodynamics and, as a consequence, proposed to consider their relationship as changes in geomorphological formations in time and space. The scientific creativity of NA. Florensov, as a whole, is comparable in importance with that of other most prominent geomorphologists of the late 19th and 20th centuries, including V.M. Davis, W. Penk, S.S. Shults, I.P. Gerasimov, and L. King.