Soil structure of sand quarries territory

Anthropogenic activities are one of the leading factors of soil differentiation. Significant changes in the soil cover occur as a result of the construction of quarries. The mining industry causes the complete degradation of soils in large areas, the change of the natural soil cover and elevation around the quarries, the destruction of vegetation, disturbs biodiversity of the territory and the death of ecosystems. Soil cover structures of mining quarries have been considered on the example of the Leningrad region such as a natural conditions and environmental peculiarities typical for the whole Russian North-West area. Decoding and diagnostic signs of anthropogenic transformed soils were determined. The type and degree of transformation of the component composition, the contrast and heterogeneity of the soil cover, intercomponent connections, the shape and figure of the internal organization of the of soil cover structures have been identified. The complexity of the anthropogenic transformed soils cover is illustrated by “key site”