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.
I. N. LEONENKO