QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY AND EVOLUTION OF THE MIDDLE VOLGA AND LOWER KAMA RIVER BASINS

Abstract

Recent deposits representing the early-late Pleistocene climatoliths are detected and described in the course of a comprehensive study of several reference sections in the middle Volga River basin. Data of lithological, geochemical, paleopedological, and paleontological analyses show that the Quaternary history of the middle Volga and lower Kama river basins is divisible into thirteen paleogeographic stages corresponding to seven interglacial or interstadial events (early to late Il'inka beds - Cromerian II and III; Belovezh'e Horizon = Cromerian IV; Likhvinian Horizon s. str. = Inzhavino beds = Holsteinian; Kamenka, Romny, and Mikulinian beds = Eemian; Bryansk Horizon = Holocene) and to six glacial phases separating them (Don, Okaian, Borisoglebsk, Orchik, Dnieperian, and Valdayan glaciations). The recognized climatic rhythms of the Pleistocene are correlated and used as a basis to elucidate the evolution of soil horizons and natural environments in the East European region of Russia.