Kursk Series

the complex of Precambrian metamorphic rock of the East European Platform in the region of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly. According to absolute-age data, the Kursk series belongs to the Lower Proterozoic. The name “Kursk series” was introduced by the Soviet geologist M. N. Voskresenskaia in 1955. Four strata may be distinguished: the lower Kursk suite of shale and sandstone, the middle Kursk suite of iron ore, the upper Kursk suite of shale and limestone, and the Kurbakin (Tim) suite of effusive-sedimentary rock. The rocks of the series are gathered into folds with a northwesterly trend and have large limbs at angles of 60°-90°. In places there are intrusions of granites, diabases, porphyrites, gabbros, gabbro-diorites, and syenites. In Lower Paleozoic times a thick laterite weathering crust formed on the highly eroded, buried surface of the Kursk series rocks. In addition to rich iron ores on ferruginous quartzites the crust contains eluvial bauxites.