Geological and Geomorphological Sketch of Moscow and the Moscow Region

Data on the geology and relief of the Moscow region are being synthesised, taking into account the latest scientific achievements. This directly concerns, among others, the Moscow metropolitan area within the old and new (since 2012) boundaries. The structure of the upper floors of the subsoil has been seriously altered by the construction of canals, dams, subways, quarrying of minerals: limestone and other building materials, glass sands, peat and phosphorites. The piezometric level of underground water was lowered by tens of metres by pumping, which provoked in some places destructive activation of ancient karst. In the central districts of Moscow city the runoff of a series of small rivers was transferred into underground collectors, which led to the activation of subsidence on technogenic soils. Gravitational reworking of steep river valley sides allows nowadays to consider the displaced bodies as detrusive landslides of deep (up to 100 metres) embedment. The network of semi-buried valleys partially filled with Middle Quaternary alluvium and fluvioglacial sediments, according to new drilling materials, has been significantly thickened. The transfer of significant volumes of the Volga River flow into the Moskva, Skhodnya and Yauza Rivers has made adjustments in the dynamics of channel processes of the named rivers. The same applies to the Klyazma, Ucha, Khimki and Likhoborka rivers crossed by the Moscow Canal. The effect of construction by beavers of hundreds of low-pressure earthen dams in the valley bottoms of the upper reaches of small rivers is ambiguous. In the basins of the rivers Sestra, Istra and other medium-sized watercourses, these large rodents have created miniature cascades of flowing ponds that flood adjacent territories. The complex of anthropogenic and remaining militarigenic landforms has noticeably changed the topography of the region.