NEW DATA ON THE MAXIMAL THICKNESS OF SUBSIDENCE STRATA IN LOESS MASSIFS

Abstract

Subsidence of loess masses as the capacity for deformation under loading when soaked (moistened) in response to natural or technogenic factors is their characteristic engineering–geological feature. According to modern notions, this feature is developed in polygenetic soils directly in the course of accumulation and early subaerial diagenesis of silty sediments in arid conditions (syngenetic subsidence), progressive lithogenesis of young soils in subaerial conditions, or supergene (including cryoeluvial) decompaction of diachronous and polygenetic soils (epigenetic subsidence). Soils with relative subsidence equal to or exceeding 0.01 are assigned to subsidence ones.