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Sapropel is natural organic material, which is used in many industries, such as agriculture, medicine, pharmaceutical, manufacture of energy carriers and building materials. However, the widespread use of sapropel is associated with its high hydrophilicity and moisture capacity, leading to technological difficulties with sapropel dehydration to required humidity, depending on its further application. The article discusses various aspects sapropel beneficial application, primarily the advantages of the use of sapropel as a fertilizer for cultivated areas, and for the reclamation of industri-al wastelands and mined lands. As a part of this study, experimental research of the qualitative and quantitative parameters of sapropel of Savelievskoye field of the Yaroslavl region was conducted. Based on the results of this research, the nature of the high hydrophilicity of sapropel of Savelievskoye field and the possibilities of reducing its humidity for the production of fertilizers is revealed.

This paper presents the first fossil penguin from East Antarctica, and the only one known south of the Antarctic Circle. It is represented by two well-preserved elements of the wing skeleton, humerus and radius, obviously assignable to the extant genus Spheniscus. They were found in the glaciomarine succession of the Fisher Bench Formation (Fisher Massif, Prince Charles Mountains, Mac. Robertson Land), which was dated using Strontium Isotope Stratigraphy to be Late Miocene in age (10.2 Ma). They are only slightly younger than the oldest remains undoubtedly attributable to this taxon. The X-ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy indicate diagenetic alteration of the original bone bioapatite under dominantly marine conditions. The Late Miocene was a period of ice margin retreat and marine incursion into the Lambert embayment that followed Middle Miocene cooling of the Antarctic climate. The fossils strongly suggest that variable climatic and environmental conditions in East Antarctica may have been an important factor in the evolution of penguins there during the Neogene.