Specificity of the morphology of interglacial and interstadial paleosol complexes of the middle and late Pleistocene in the center of the East European Plain

Abstract

Paleosol studies were conducted on the Moskva-Oka interfluve in the center of the East European Plain. Three paleosol complexes were distinguished in the sequence of soil-loess deposits: the Mezin complex of the Late Pleistocene age and the Kamensk and Inzhavin complexes of the Middle Pleistocene. Each of them consisted of the paleosols of two phases: the earlier interglacial phase and the later interstadial phase. In some cases, the paleosols of these two phases were separated by a thin layer of sediments with distinct features of cryoturbation. Paleosols of the interstadial phases are represented by the dark-colored humus-rich meadowchernozemic and chernozem-like prairie soils. During the interglacial periods in the Middle and Late Pleistocene, the soils with pronounced eluvial-illuvial differentiation of their profiles were developed under forest cenoses. Data on the morphology of paleosols; their physical, chemical, and physicochemical properties (particle-size distribution, pH, humus, carbonates, amorphous and crystallized iron oxides, etc.); and their micro-morphological features studied in thin sections prepared from undisturbed soil monoliths make it possible to judge the character of the pedogenesis during different epochs.