LITHOGENESIS AND SOIL EVOLUTION IN THE CHECHEN DEPRESSION, NORTHERN CAUCASUS

General regularities of soil evolution and plant successions within th e Chechen Depression, Northern Caucasus (the Ingush Republic, Russia) during the second half of the Holocene are revealed on the basis of mo rphogenetic and biomorphic analyses of recent soils and buried paleoso ls. Paleoenvironmental conditions of that period are reconstructed. It is argued that pedogenic processes in the Holocene have been accompan ied by lithogenesis (the synlithogenic model of soil formation). Holoc ene soils within the studied territory represent a stage in the contin uous sequence of pedogenic and lithogenic events during the Pleistocen e and Holocene periods.