Mineralogy and Magnetic Properties of the Loess-Soil Formation Due to Changes in Landscape and Climatic Conditions in the Terek-Kuma Lowland in the Pleistocene


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Abstract

A detailed mineralogical and geochemical study of the reference section “Otkaznoye”, representing a loess-soil complex confined to the Tersko-Kuma Plain, was carried out. The section provides a detailed record of the history of the development of the region in the Pleistocene. The thickness of the deposits reaches up to –140 m, and the age can exceed 800 thousand years. One of the main tasks of the work was to demonstrate the capabilities of a set of methods of environmental magnetism in combination with Mössbauer spectroscopy, mineralogical and geochemical methods for carrying out paleogeographic reconstructions of the natural environment and sedimentation conditions in the Pleistocene. Changes in the main magnetic properties for the Otkaznoe section were found, indicating with a high sensitivity of iron mineralogy in conection to climatic conditions during soil formation and sedimentation. The soil horizons are characterized by an increased content of ferrimagnets. There is a significant increase in the ferrimagnetic contribution in paleosol horizons (PS), where it reaches 80% of the total magnetic susceptibility compared to loess horizons, where its share is 5060%. The distribution of clay minerals over the depth of the studied section makes it possible to distinguish up to six levels of development of paleosols. The degree of manifestation of changes in the mineral composition in them is different. An important point is the presence of chlorites in the paleosol horizons, which can probably be explained by the erosion of the most weathered top of the PS. A noticeable increase in the content of the smectite phase in the PS horizons indicates a sufficient duration of soil formation. The results obtained on the change in magnetic and clay mineralogy quite clearly fix the paleosol horizons, but two interstadials are also distinguished – the Mikulin (MIS5) and the Dnieper (MIS6) (probably weakly pronounced Bryansk paleosol), which confirms the stratigraphic constructions. ased on the obtained set of magnetic and mineralogical, and geochemical parameters for the soil-loess complexes of the territory of the Terek-Kuma Plain, the dynamics of climatic conditions in the Pleistocene is quantitatively reconstructed and the trend of gradual climate aridization during the Pleistocene is confirmed. The epochs of interglacials, when soil complexes were formed, were characterized by an increased, compared to the stages of glaciations, climate humidity with a maximum aridity index IDM -35 (annual precipitation up to 700 mm) characteristic of the Inzhava pedocomplex (PS4).

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About the authors

A. О. Alekseev

Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: alekseev@issp.psn.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5158-4454
Russian Federation, Pushchino, 142290

T. V. Alekseeva

Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: alekseev@issp.psn.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3880-2573
Russian Federation, Pushchino, 142290

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