Flash floods are one of the most dangerous hydrometeorological events in the world. The current study investigates flash floods on the northern Black Sea Coast. The data about stochastic and relatively stable factors of flash flood formation (such as hydrological, meteorological, lithological, geomorphological, and anthropogenic parameters) were collected for 22 events. The main trigger of flash floods is heavy rainfall of high intensity in the region but in some cases flash flood occurrence is connected with combinations of several non-critical factors. The small watershed area (<351 km(2)) of river basins experiencing flash floods promotes very rapid flow concentration. Analysis of extreme precipitation demonstrates significant increasing trends in river basins on the Crimean Peninsula and decreasing a maximum precipitation amount in 5 days (r5d) and 1 day (r1d) in river basins in the Caucasus Black Sea Coast in the 21st century as determined by processing of Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global precipitation measurement (IMEGR) satellite data. At the same time land network data indicates increasing r5d at the Anapa and r1d at the Tuapse meteorological stations in 1961-2020. More frequent occurrence of flash floods has been suggested in the area due to statistical analysis of the longest precipitation ranges. The main reason for significant social and economic damage is uncontrolled human activity in flooded areas on the northern Black Sea Coast. (c) 2024 International Research and Training Centre on Erosion and Sedimentation. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY- NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Our archaeoseismological studies of the ruins of a medieval Christian temple located at the foot of Kilisa-Kaya Mountain in the southeast of the Crimean Peninsula have shown that the building structures have obvious traces of significant seismic damages: tilts, shifts, and rotations of both entire building elements and individual stone blocks or their packages. Extended subvertical interblock cracks break the walls of the temple to their entire residual height. Oblique cracks that occur under conditions of longitudinal compression cut elongated building blocks. The stone pavement of the temple is also damaged: there are depressions in it. Judging by the fact that the temple was repaired, and sections of the repaired walls were also deformed, the structure was affected by two seismic events. The last of them left traces in the apse and the northern portal. Seismic oscillations spread in the sublatitudinal direction. The damage caused by this earthquake apparently includes shifts and tilts of brickwork in the submeridionally oriented walls, as well as the loss of domed and arched parts of the building. The first earthquake led to the appearance of deformations (shifts) in the walls of the sublatitudinal strike, after which the temple was repaired. The second seismic event, apparently, led to the formation of a landslide in the upper reaches of the dry creek in the valley of which the temple was located. The lake formed above the dam once broke through the barrier, and a mudslide passed down the valley. The mudflow material filled the interior of the temple and formed sediments around the building. Mudslide deposits covered and preserved the walls of the temple, as well as deformations in them for hundreds of years. Judging by the severity of the damage to the religious building, built with special quality, the intensity of seismic oscillations during both seismic events was at least VIII points. The exact dates of the construction of the temple and the earthquakes still need to be clarified, for which further research of the monument is necessary. Since its construction is tentatively dated from the second half of the 12th century to the first half of the 13th century, the first earthquake occurred after the specified date. It is known that the temple was almost completely buried under a layer of soil by the end of the 18th century. Accordingly, the second seismic event can be dated to this time.

Soils and occupation layers of dwellings and livestock pens located in the western part of the Crimean peninsula were investigated employing methods of archaeoparasitology and soil microbiology. The studies were carried out at several sites, namely, Tyumen-3, Tyumen-7 and Bagai-1. Eggs of two types of helmints, presumably, Dicrocoeliidae and Trichuridae families, were identified in the selected samples. Trematodes of the Dicrocoeliidae family cause dicroceliosis, which is a parasitic disease, predominantly, of sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, etc. This trematode can be dangerous for humans. Trichuridae are roundworms which, depending on species, infest the intestine of humans, sheep, dogs, pigs, etc. Depending on severity of disease, the invasion of this helmint in humans and animals can be characterized by both asymptomatic disease course and clinical manifestations caused by damage to the colon mucosa, intoxication of the organism by excreta, etc. Close correlation between the incidence rate of the Trichuridae family eggs and urease enzyme activity and CFU counts for thermophilic bacteria was found. A high incidence rate of whipworms and increased values of the aforementioned microbiological indicators are linked with conservation conditions of the occupation layer. High incidence of eggs of the trematodes of the Dicrocoeliidae families was found to closely correlate with larger numbers of CFU for saprotrophic bacteria and keratinolytic fungi, this genus of helmints was identified in equal qualities both in livestock pens and dwellings. Hence, this study was the first to prove that such livestock diseases as dicroceliosis and trichocephalosis probably were common in the Late Bronze Age.