Last century mountain tourism and ski mountaineering became widespread in all developed Western countries. To our country the population’s craving for mountains and mountains sports came with some delay. During the Soviet period tourist centers, mountaineering camps, and a bit later, cable ways with ski centers, hotels, etc. were built in the Caucasus. The dissolution of the USSR prevented the further development of this process. Following the dissolution of the country the political situation in Checheno-Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria also hindered the development of rich recreational resources of the highest European mountain- Elbrus. That time foreign and our tourists, as well as mountain skiers, preferred foreign sports centers to high-crime Caucasus. Currently the situation has settled down and native and foreign alpinists, tourists and mountain skiers once again come here. That enables the further promotion of this important field of livelihoods in the Caucasian republics of the Russian Federation, the sustainable development of their mountain territories.

It is well known that seismic risk of the Armenian territory is very high. The sequels of Spitak Earthquake in 1988 gave evidence of it. Damage level and losses caused by the earthquake were incommensurate with its magnitude (M=6. 9).

It is extremely important to mark out what proper lessons have been learned from Spitak earthquake for big cities of Armenia, what is the real level of seismic hazard, and what the damage rate will be in the cities in case such or even more violent earthquake (the worst scenario) occurs nowadays.

Lately, in the framework of international and national projects, deterministic assessments of seismic risk for big cities of Armenia have been conducted. The works have b

In this article correlation between height and landscape belts and mudflow processes is defined. Intensification of processes of mudflow formation under the anthropogenic influence is established, as well as the abrupt expansion of areas of mudflow sites in the middle and high mountain zones. Zoning according to the mudflow processes development tension is given.

In recent decades climate changes due to various factors, including emissions of greenhouse gases, are unprecedented. During the period of regional warming (1993-2014) the average annual temperature in Abkhazia reached (18ºC) at normal (14,5ºS), most significantly compared with the normal summer temperatures rose by 2,2ºC, winter temperatures did not change. The rise of the surface layer temperature leads to the increase of the annual and seasonal precipitation. At the same time during the growing season more than 47% of annual precipitation falls on the coast, but they can’t adequately moisten the soil, due to the short-term nature of the rain falling. In this connection, a lot of annual crops (especially vegetables) are suffering from drought. At the same time, intense showers with total daily precipitation over 120 mm lead to river floods and intensification of slope processes.

The results of expert assessment of priority directions of the use of natural resources of mountain region are reported on the example of the Republic of North Ossetia – Аlania. The degree of the experts’ opinion consistency is verified. Brief description of the raw material resources of the Republic of North Ossetia-Аlania is given. The analysis was carried out and the grounds for possible directions of mountain region development were given taking into account the experts’ opinion. As a rather effective option could be considered the simultaneous use of all the natural resources and related areas of the mountain region development in compliance with the harmony of interactions, minimizing man-made displays and keeping up all the conditions for sustainable development of mountain territories.

The characteristic of modern distance education and its opportunities are given. New educational technologies have been reviewed. The features of personnel training for mining and metallurgical industries have been described. The aspects of interaction of distance education with foreign strategic partners have been analyzed. The concept of improving higher distance education in NCMMI was formulated using informative, methodical, professional and financial aspects when implementing interrelated innovation strategies. The ways were defined to implement the concept of distance education, with foreign countries as well. It has been found that distance education allows combining different cognitive forms and results. Therefore, creating conditions for training specialists of mining and geological profile in a competitive economy is one of the most important and urgent problems. In this case, distance learning allows overcoming spatial and time frames for obtaining the necessary educational information, since the traditional methods of teaching and learning today do not meet the rapidly changing needs of mining production. The aspects of improving mining and geological distance education have been marked out. 

Features of the geological structure, hydrogeological and geochemical conditions of the Komsomolsk field of thermal waters are reviewed in the article. The results of physico-chemical studies of the thermal waters composition are given. In conclusion there is a comparative analysis of physico-chemical studies of the thermal waters of the Komsomolsk field with the existing data from library materials, and also recommendations for balneological use.