Results of Cryotrasologic Indication of Paleosols Revealed to the North of the European and Western Siberian Loess Belt

Abstract

Rock freezing affects soil complexes with maximum temperature gradients and forms a set of the specific cryotrasologic features in a solid matrix of soils. Remaining unchanged, these features serve as direct and indirect indicators of the past cryogenic settings. Transformation of the soil mass at the macro- and micromorphological levels is related to the direct indicators. Soil gleyzation in the drained positions is conditioned by the occurrence of frozen aquicludes in past settings; it is related to indirect indicators. We revealed the complex of such features in paleosols to the north of the European and Western Siberian Loess Belt and used them to estimate the cryogenic settings of the Late Pleistocene.