First Findings of Buried Late-Glacial Paleosols within the Dune Fields of the Tomsk Priobye Region (SE Western Siberia, Russia)

Abstract

Buried soils within aeolian deposits are considered an important tool for diagnosing, determining the age, and estimating the intensity of aeolian processes at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene in the Northern Hemisphere. Late Pleistocene aeolian coversands and ancient inland dunes are widely distributed in the periglacial zone of Western Siberia. In contrast to the territories of Central and Eastern Europe, the paleosol archive of the aeolian sands and dunes of Western Siberia has not yet been studied. This paper presents the first findings of late Pleistocene paleosols within the ancient inland dunes in the southeast of Western Siberia (Ob–Tomsk interfluve, Tomsk region). The soils and their stratigraphic position were studied in the outcrop of the quarry, located in the junction zone of the second Tom river terraces and the ancient valley. Two types of paleosols were identified. The first one is confined to the central part of a small dune and is represented by a slightly developed Albic Arenosol with fragmentary humus horizon Ahb and a well-pronounced Eb. It can probably be considered as an analogue of the European Usselo soil. The second paleosol was found at the bottom of the interdune depression. It is represented by a brown Bwb horizon and probably corresponds to a Brunic Arenosol (Dystric). The second paleosol is characterized by a higher content of clay fraction and organic carbon, the presence of weak signs of illuviation, and richer and more diverse mineral composition. This soil is apparently an analogue of the European Finow soil. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoals found in the paleosols suggests that the first dates from the Younger Dryas (ca. 12,036 cal. yr. BP), and the second one from the Allerød (ca. 13,355 cal. yr. BP). The study results propose that the natural environment in the periglacial zone of the south of Western Siberia was generally similar to those in Central and Eastern Europe, and the activation of aeolian processes, which led to the formation of a dune relief, occurred at about the same time.

Reinterpretation of Fluvial-Aeolian Sediments From Last Glacial Termination Classic Type Localities Using High-Resolution Radiocarbon Data From the Polish Part of the European Sand Belt

“…In the western part of the ESB, soilforming processes continued from the early Allerød interstadial until the middle Allerød interstadial, whereas in the central part they were interrupted by aeolian activity during the Greenland Interstadial GI-1b. Similar pedogenic processes have been interpreted from sediments of this age in southwest Siberia, Russia (Konstantinov et al 2019). This large geographic range suggests that pedogenic processes developed across the whole ESB.…”

“…One of the more important elements in fluvial-aeolian sedimentss is paleosols, which have crucial significance for paleoenvironmental reconstructions, as well as for assessing chronology based on 14 C dating methods (Kaiser et al 2009;Konstantinov et al 2019). The current biostratigraphy used from the Polish part of the ESB is derived from a biostratigraphic model established previously in Denmark (Iversen 1954).…”

Cone penetration testing for extensive mapping of deeply buried Late Glacial coversand landscape paleotopography

“…Kaiser et al (2009) have described humic sands with a similar lithostratigraphic position as the wet appearance of the Usselo soil and Kasse (2002) as a Usselo‐ish soil. Similar sediments have been found in depressions next to fully developed Usselo soils in more elevated coversands and dunes, just outside the Scheldt paleovalley (Kasse & Aalbersberg, 2019), in NE Belgium (Derese et al, 2012) and on many more places up to W Siberia (Konstantinov et al, 2019). In comparison, the site discussed in this paper has clearer (chrono)stratigraphic separation of multiple organic rich horizons.…”

Palaeosols and their cover sediments of a glacial landscape in northern central Europe: Spatial distribution, pedostratigraphy and evidence on landscape evolution

“…Considering its morphology, pedostratigraphical position and geochronological dating into the Lateglacial up to the very early Holocene, it was already previously identified as 'Finow soil' (Kaiser et al, 2014a;Küster, 2014;Schwabe et al, 2015), representing a widespread buried marker soil (brunic Arenosol) in northern central Europe and beyond (e.g. Bussemer et al, 2009;Kaiser et al, 2009;Jankowski, 2012;Schlaak, 2015;Hirsch et al, 2017;Kappler et al, 2019, Konstantinov et al, 2019. A potentially related fAh horizon usually lacks.…”