Hypothetical lithogenic profile of loamy soils in the center of the Russian Plain

Mantle loesslike loams of the Late Valdai (Wurmian, Wisconsin) are the pare nt rocks for the Holocene modal soddy-podzolic and gray forest soils in the center of the Russian Plain. A system of paragenetic horizons that has dev eloped in these rocks by the present time constitutes soil profiles and dis plays the history of their evolution. It is shown that the development of s oil profiles includes not only the Holocene, but also the Pre-Holocene stag es. The polylithogenic stratified body consisting of elementary soil units (ESUs) was formed during the accumulation of mantle loesslike loams in the Late Valdai and then became a substrate for the Holocene pedogenesis. The l atter resulted in connecting different lithological horizons into a paragen etic system of modern polylithogenic, polygenetic, and heterochronous soil profiles.