Soil parent materials in the Moshaysk district, Russia

Soil profiles developed on moraines of the penultimate glaciation on the Russian Plain have formed from redistributed material, mainly sand, derived from upslope. This material consists of layers, some of which also contain, or may even be dominated by, loess. The lowest layer differs little from the underlying substratum except where it covers deposits other than till; it is mainly inherited from till, but has been altered by solifluction, leading to downslope clast orientation and to a high bulk density. The overlying layers, also solifluction deposits, contain loess, the content of which increases towards the surface. Deeper profiles on flat relief, especially on one particular toeslope, are divided into at least three of these layers, the lowest of which contains a mature truncated paleosol. This buried soil, an Alfisol with clay–humus cutans, is assumed to represent the soil of the last interglacial. Above this, the illuvial horizon of the surface soil is developed. This is overlain by the uppermost layer, which is of loose consistency and rich in loess. It contains the eluvial horizon of the surface soil. On flat relief, modern pedogenesis is dominated by perched water tables resulting from differences in the bulk density of the layers. The maximum loess content in the upper layer and the wide distribution of a paleosol and an intermediate layer make these layers different from similar sequences in Central and Western Europe.