Aral Gr

Around the Aral Sea. L.D. Anpleeva, B.I. Pinhasov, 1999). As a complex, it was used in the stratigraphic scheme of Quaternary deposits (A.I. Kim et al., 2000). Kh.A. Toychiev (471b), based on geological-geophysical data, distinguished the Holocene deposits in the Aral series, which is divided into three suites; Karasuyskaya (Karasuy Fm; early Aral stage), Bahmalskaya (Bahmal Fm; ancient Aral stage) and Akdaryinskaya (Akdaryin Fm; modern and new Aral stages) according to E.G. Maev (278a).

Synonym: Aral Complex, Аральский компл.

Deposits of the complex are formed by the activity of the Aral Sea at various stages of its development, due to which E.G. Maev et al. (278a) distinguished deposits of the ancient Aral (70-73 and 58-60 m abs.) and the new Aral (53-54 m abs.) transgressions of the ancient Aral and the new Aral subcomplex. The ancient Aral subcomplex on the Ustyurt escarpment forms a narrow abrasion-accumulative terrace, or rather, a coastal ridge at 70-73 m abs. It is composed of sand and fragments of Sarmatian limestones (thickness up to 1.5 m). In the southeastern part of the Aral, it forms a denudation-accumulative surface (58-60 m abs.), composed of sand, washed out from the sandy rocks of the Atynkol Fm (thickness up to 1 m).

The new Aral subcomplex - a narrow strip along the former coast of the Aral and the dried-up bottom. It is represented by deposits of the underwater delta in the area of the last inflow of the Amu Darya into the Aral (sands, siltstone (aleurolites), clays with layers of marine shells Cerastoderma lamarcki (Reeve). Thickness 5-10 m). Lying on lacustrine-alluvial clays of the upper-modern links of the unstratified; wave deposits, uniting the formations of beaches, coastal ridges and island bars (sands with abundant shells Cerastoderma lamarcki (Reeve), fragments of Miocene and Cretaceous rocks. Thickness 5-6 m), stagnant-water deposits of bays - sands, loams and sandy loams and lenses of sands, gypsum, salt (thickness up to 5 m), lying on the deposits of the Amudarya complex, Atynkol Fm; basin deposits of the dried-up bottom of the Aral (sands, sandy loams, thickness up to 3 m

Contains Cerastoderma lamarcki (Reeve) (= Cardium edule L.), Corbicula fluminalis Müll., C. feranensis (Kurs. et Star.), Limnea (Peragriana) labotis (Schrask.).

The new Aral subcomplex - Cerastoderma lamarcki (Reeve), Abra segmentum Reclur., Dreisenna polymorpha aralensis (Andv.); Theoduxus pallasi L, Hyocypris salebrosa Step., Eucypris inflata (Sars), Cypris pubera (Müll.), Tirrhenoctyhere amnicola donetziensis (Dub.), Limnocythere cymbula (Liv.), L. incussa Dahl.)