Page 122 - Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors, Vol. 1
P. 122
Nicolai Levashov. Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors. Vol. 1
In the process of its extension the glacier destroyed the high fertile layer of soil
(the black earth), which was rich in organic material and had been being created for
many thousands of years. The relatively low mountains of the Middle Russian region
slowed and then stopped the advance of the European glacier.
We should take into account that the glaciers not only advanced, but also re-
treated. For almost two thousand years of the ice-age there were several both warm
and cold snaps which were not so dramatic as the one which happened 13 016 years
ago (2007). These rises and drops in temperature were related to the recurrent volcan-
ic activity on the planet. After a series of strong volcanic eruptions a cold snap seized
the planet as a result of the volcanic dust and ash thrown into the atmosphere and the
glaciers began to grow and advance. As long as the volcanic dust and ash precipitat-
ed, the atmosphere cleared, which resulted in more intensive rays from the sun heat-
ing the surface of the planet. A temporal warming happened and the glaciers began to
retreat. There were several glacial retreats and advances; as a result of such “iron-
ings”, the low mountains of the Middle Russian region were converted into the Rus-
sian Plain (or the East European Plain). The Ural (Riphean) mountains could not
avoid a similar fate, especially their north offsets.
One only needs to study the soil map of Eurasia in order to get a detailed picture
of the glaciers’ bounds and size in Eurasia during the last ice-age. It will clearly indi-
cate the southernmost border of the glacier and the process of its gradual retreat to the
North Pole. The border of the glacier is determined very exactly, it is enough to look
at the location of black earth which is the soil with the highest content of organic ma-
terial. Initially, until the first plants appeared on the surface of dry land, all soils were
absolutely sterile. The volcanic and podsolic soils are the closest ones to the primor-
dial state. They have minimal organic material content. If we visit an active or recent-
ly extinct volcano, we can see the picture of how Midgard-earth looked about three
billion years ago, i.e. almost sterile. The plants shed their leaves and fruits and died in
the process of the dry land developing; all this began to disintegrate and decompose
into organic molecules. A virgin soil does not contain any organic inclusions. They
appear in the course of time when vegetable and animal remains which form the basis
of humus get into the soil. In the course of time the quantity of organic inclusions
grows and microorganisms appear in it. They begin to assimilate and satiate it with
the products of their vital functions, thus, forming a fertile layer — humus
Exactly the thickness of humus and the organic material in a soil determine its
fertility. These two parameters clearly indicate the duration of the existence of active
biological life on the surface. For example, the depth of the black earth in Tambov is
6 meters which shows that it has been formed for a long time and that nothing dis-
turbed this process, at least, for the last one hundred thousand years, which means
that the glacier never reached there. The glacier in its motion cuts away the higher
and fertile layer of soil like a bulldozer and at the same time it partly thaws. The
brooks produced by the glacier carry the fertile layer into rivers which in their turn
move it into seas and oceans. When the glacier disappears, it leaves a naked, lifeless
earth with many lakes and the soil remains frozen several meters deep for a long
time. As the glacier retreats north as a result of the climate’s warming, the soil slowly
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