Mineral composition of the fine-dispersed fractions of loess and soil processes developed in them

Of the stable indications of elementary soil processes those are to be identified which are taking place in the fine-dispersed fractions of soil by transformations of layer silicates and primarily of interstratified formations.Instrumental detection of transformations in the fine-dispersed material and of its migration along paleosol profiles allows a comparison with changes in recent soils and a judgement about the conditions of paleosol formation. This presumption is supported by data on the mineral composition of the fine-dispersed fractions of the Mikulino interglacial soils as a product of the first phase of pedogenesis within the Mezin loess- paleosol complex (Morozova et al. 1979) and, in general, of the loess-paleosol sequence developed above the ground moraine of the Don glacier tongue containing paleosols formed in the Early, Middle and Late Pleistocene (Velichko et al. 1965).