Features of Late Pleistocene lithogenesis and cryogenesis in soils of the central area of East European Plain

Research subject and methods. A comparative analysis of the author’s and literature data on the zoning of lithogenesis and cryogenesis processes in soils of the central area of the East European Plain was carried out. The study sites are located in the periglacial zone of the Valdai glaciation, concentrated around three soil zones of six subjects of the Russian Federation. A set of methods, including cartographic, morphological, stratigraphic, comparative geographical, and the 14C-method for dating soil samples, was used.

Aim. To identify the features of manifestation of the Late Pleistocene processes of pedogenesis, lithogenesis, and cryogenesis in the central area of the East European Plain.

Results. For the first time, the use of an integrated methodological approach made it possible to obtain results in a wide geographical aspect and generalize data demonstrating the varying degrees of the Late Pleistocene processes of cryogenesis, lithogenesis, and pedogenesis in the soils of the central area of the East European Plain. Here, paleocryogenic microrelief, paleocryogenic phenomena, and paleosoils of the Middle Altai period were identified and systematized. These soils possess different morphogenetic features, lie at different depths, and are buried by sediments of different thickness, reflecting the zonal specificity, time, and speed of lithogenesis and pedogenesis. From the Middle Valdai stage up to the present, the impact of the Valdai glacier has ensured the gradual change and intensity of natural processes in the periglacial region from the peripheral part to the glacial part. Since the onset of the formation, flourishing, and degradation of the ice sheet, the processes of pedogenesis, lithogenesis, and cryogenesis, and again lithogenesis and pedogenesis, have changed at different times and with a varying intensity of manifestation in different central areas of the East European Plain. In the chernozem zone, the processes of pedogenesis, lithogenesis, and cryogenesis occurred somewhat earlier than in the humid regions, with the latter process being insignificant and short-lived. The territory of the gray soil zone was dominated by the maximum development and impact of the glacial cover, which was reflected in the processes of intensive lithogenesis and the most extreme conditions of cryogenesis processes. In the zone of sod-podzolic soils, cryolithopedogenesis processes in different epochs were short-term, which was likely due to the dynamics of the existence and degradation of the glacial cover, manifested in a shortage of transported mineral material, as well as to the weakening and shortening of cryogenic processes.

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