Specific Features of Lithological and Mineralogical Compositions of Moraines in the Don Region

Results of the detailed lithological-mineralogical study of moraines from the well-known key sections in the Don Basin are presented. Important debatable issues concerning the age of Early Pleistocene glacial sediments are considered. Together with biostratigraphic data, recent data on the mineral composition of key moraine units can be used for solving these issues. The layered moraine sequence of the Don Basin (hereafter, Don moraine) shows compositional similarity in a regional scale. However, it is characterized by a spatiotemporal variation in the mineral and petrographic associations governed by specific paleogeographic settings and stages of moraine formation. Specific features of temporal rearrangement of these associations indicate the general paleogeographic trend of glacial lithogenesis. Therefore, they make it possible to compare moraines from the Kuznetsovka and Volnaya Vershina sections that include a combination of the most stable (and, generally, local) minerals and rocks of early stages of glacial lithogenesis. The compositionally most exotic Novokhopersk and Moiseevo moraines are logically attributed to the later stage of moraine formation. This does not contradict specific features of teriofauna in the interglacial sediments underlying and overlying the moraines. It is shown the spatiotemporal variation in the mineral composition of moraines of the Don region can be used for their stratigraphic correlation.__________Translated from Litologiya i Poleznye Iskopaemye, No. 3, 2005, pp. 321–332.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Bylinskii, Ananeva, Sudakova.