Arrangement, composition, and genesis of bleached components of loamy soddy-podzolic soils

Morphological and mineralogical analyses have been conducted to reveal the dominant process of formation of bleached components in illuvial horizons and to establish the degree of mineral transformation in fissures. In a heavy loamy soil, bleached fragments in the illuvial horizon are formed due to the transport of already bleached material from the eluvial horizon along narrow fissures and its deposition on fissure walls in the form of siltans; there is a great difference between the mineralogical composition of the material filling fissures and of the interfissure mass. In a medium loamy and, presumably, younger soil, wide fissures serve as channels, where the silicate material is bleached ill situ without its significant alteration.