SOLONSKE SECTION AND THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE STUDY OF PLEISTOCENE CARPATHIAN FORELAND

Abstract

The article presents the results of the field study of the two artificial outcrops of the Pleistocene deposits, which are located in the suburbs Solonske near Drohobych city. Outcrops (careers) are located within the terrace of the Tysmenytsia River. The height of the terrace is about 50 m above the river level and changes along the distance from the mountains. The main attention in the article is paid to the study of the structure of the upper (covering) stratum of the terrace with a thickness of about 26 m, and also to the characteristics of its consolidated stratigraphic section. The basis of this stratum consists of the layers of non-carbonate loams and clays. They are more or less enriched of iron compounds and gleyed. Between them there are four horizons of buried soils of the interglacial and interstadial rank. Based on the observations made in the field, it was found that the sediments of the covering stratum have mainly river origin. The conditions of their accumulation, as well as the conditions for the formation and transformation of ancient soils, are considered; eight pre-Holocene lito- and pedostratigraphic layers of different rank are singled out. The division of the covering stratum of the terraces into three main layers is sub¬stan¬tiated, which is equivalent to the stratigraphic units of the glacial and interglacial rank. Comparison of the Solonske section with other sections of the similar height terraces, in particular with well-known outcrops near the village Dubrivka (section Dubrivka) gives grounds to assume that the formation of a local terrace occurred during the Marine Isotopic Stages 12 to 10. Consequently, the Solonske section represents a short strati¬gra¬phic interval of the Middle Pleistocene (not the three main Pleistocene units as stated in the results of its previous study). It can be the basis for studying only a few (two to three) horizons of the glacial/interglacial rank. At the same time, it is potentially a very impor¬tant key section of the Solonske (Dubrivska, Dovhivska, Varnytska) terrace of the Pre-Dniester. The studying of Solonske outcrops makes it necessary to revise the popular notions about the origin and the age of the so-called covering stratum of the river terraces of the Carpathian Foreland and Podolian Pre-Dniester, its stratigraphic filling and significance. Key words: alluvial deposits; terraces; soil-loess sequence; Middle Pleistocene; Dniester valley; Carpathian Foreland; Solonske section.