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Paleosol Horizons in the Quaternary Sediments of the Central Part of the Russian Plain, Russia
E.YAKIMENKO, Sc. Centre for Geoecology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulansky line, 13, Moscow, 101000, Russia.
The central part of the Russian Plain remains a controversial area because of the complexity of the Quaternary sequences. A combination of glacial, fluvioglacial and periglacial Pleistocene deposits is typical of this region.
Buried soils are poorly preserved or strongly transformed in the marginal glacial areas by later erosion, cryoturbation and diagenesis. However, comparative studies of the transformed paleosols of different area within different kinds of sediments indicates the most persistent soil properties that provide information about the paleoenvironment.
The Pleistocene paleosols, Eemian (Mikulino) and Treenian (Odintsovo), were studied in the loess and loess-like sediments lying on the fluvioglacial and glacial deposits of Dnieper stage on the right bank of the river Oka (Moscow and Ryazan provinces). The Eemian fossil soil studied does not show any clear evidence of evaluation, but have a preserved humic (A) horizon which specific biogenic crumb microstructure consisting of multiordered aggregates and B horizon with signs of clay illuviation. In contrast the lower paleosol contains evident eluvial (E) and illuvial (B) horizons, and a horizon of this soil from the deposits above and below.
The paleosol macro- and microstructure being originally soil feature seems to be the most persistent property and can be used not only for the designation of soil horizons but also for the recognition paleosol itself.
The chemical composition of the studied paleosols and sediments enclosing them illustrated that buried soil can initiate secondary processes at their upper boundaries and act as geochemical barrier to the percolating solutions.
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