Director of Sakhalin Branch: Aleksey V. Konovalov, Cand. Sc. (Physics and Mathematics)

Tel. +7-(423)-275-11-35

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Sakhalin branch was established in 2002 and initially combined 2 laboratories:

  • the Laboratory of Avalanche and Mudflow Processes Research (headed by N.A. Kazakov), Cand. Sc. (Geology and Mineralogy) 
  • the Laboratory of Monitoring of Natural Processes and Geoinformation Technologies (headed by V.A. Melkyi, D. Sc. in Technologies)

The investigations of the Laboratory of Avalanche and Mudflow Processes embrace a number of research topics studied by the preexisting scientific departments and touch upon a wide range of urgent questions concerning the exogenous geodynamic process that constitutes danger for the residential areas and industrial facilities.

The laboratory’s staff numbers 8 persons comprising 2 Candidates of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, one Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and one Candidate of Geographical Sciences.

Senior Researcher V.A. Lobkina conducts in-situ observation of seasonal stratified snow cover The Russian North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Junior Researcher M.V. Mikhalev studies effects of the mudflow passed through the canyon in 2008

This Branch conducts scientific research in the following directions:

  • monitoring avalanche, debris-flow, slide and seismic processes;
  • development of methods of quantitative evaluation of natural hazards and the risks;
  • prevention and attenuation of damages caused by exogenous geodynamic processes;
  • physical and mechanical properties of snow and snow cover;
  • snow drifting regime and snow loads; 
  • geoecological approach to manifestation of nival processes;

The uniqueness of Sakhalin Region is that it’s a natural laboratory for conducting scientific investigations of the various natural processes which are extensively represented here and frequently have dangerous effect on the environment. That is why the studies being conducted have both fundamental and applied significance.

Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve. Senior Researcher Y.V. Gensiorovsky at joint field works with the reserve’s staff

The following achievements are considered the most significant:

  • large-scale (1:2000–1:25000) map of avalanche and mudflow hazards for the territories of Sakhalin region, with the dimensions of forecasted avalanches and mudflows calculated taking into consideration the longstanding observations.
  • detection of the territories that could be highly avalanche, mudflow and slide hazardous based on the landscape features. The method works for both separate sites and the vast territories which is especially urgent in the conditions of socio-economic development of the Far East of Russia.
  • research and inventions of the laboratory’s employees conducted on the territories of Sakhalin region, Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krai, the Caucasus, Eastern Siberia, Yamal, Kola Peninsula and other regions of Russia serve as the ground for the scientific and scientific-technical support of the survey works.