Peculiarities of middle and lower Pleistocene fossil soils in the Russian Plain
Abstract The article deals with the peculiarities of the soil structure of the two formation epochs of the pre-Dnieper time on the territory of the middle and southern parts of the Russian Plain. According to micromorphological, mineralogical, and chemical data, the soils of the youngest among the horizons, the first pre-Dnieper (Likhvin?) horizon were characterized both by main properties, such as argillization and heavy weathering of rock-forming minerals, and by secondary properties, such as separation and accumulation of ferrous hydroxides in the profile of soils, and weak humification. It indicates that at that time the soil formation went on at the background of rather a hot and wet climate. Soils of the second pre-Dnieper horizon, on the contrary, are characterized by an active accumulation of humus and thus the formation of thick humus horizons, under the same climatic conditions, as in the previous epoch.