Sedimentation Conditions on Floodplains of Rivers of the Khanka Plain (Southern Far East) in the Middle–Late Holocene

Abstract

The sedimentation conditions and formation of the accumulative landscape of the Khanka Plain are reconstructed on the example of the floodplain deposits of the Mel’gunovka River. Two groups of processes are specified: soil formation (pedogenic stage) and alluvial sedimentation (lithogenic stage). It is revealed that the alternation of the lithogenic and pedogenic sedimentation stages on the floodplain mainly depended on the dynamics of climate humidity and that the temperature factor played a secondary role. The reconstructed climatic events of the second half of the Holocene correspond well to the colder and warmer periods on the GISP2 isotope curve. The correlation is the closest for the events of the Late Holocene, such as the warm periods of the 3rd–5th and 8th–10th centuries and the cold periods of the 6th and 14th–19th centuries.