ИСТИНА

Ground moraines of Saalian glaciation form important component of landscapes in northern Europe, including the center of the Russian Plain. Soils of ground moraine areas are formed on glacial and periglacial sediments (base tills, fluvioglacial deposits, mantle loams). Glacial and periglacial sediments are the oldest soil-forming rocks here. Within an altitude of 130-180 m above sea level glacial tills are often covered only with a thin veneer of sands, sandy and silty loams, so that surface soils are formed on bipartite parent material. The study of such soils as pedo-sedimentary sequences allows identifying a set of lithological, pedogenic and cryogenic features that had been formed during various stages within several climatic cycles.