Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 11.9
Organic carbon
accumulated in the transition
layer (from top of spade
blade to halfway down where
the gleyed material begins).
The soil is a Ruptic-Histic
Aquiturbel (J. Bockheim
photo)
0-100 cm depth but that another 29 kg C m
−3
occurred at the 100-200 cm depth,
suggesting that at least 36 % of the soil organic C pool was below 100 cm
(Fig.
11.9
).
In Antarctica the evolution of soils refl ects changes in climate and geologic
conditions as the continent became separated and increasingly isolated from
Gondwana. A greenhouse climate existed during the middle Paleozoic; and an ice-
house climate began in the early Oligocene. In the Oligocene, Nothofagus-
Podocarpaceae forests contained gelisols (Retallack et al.
2002
). The climate of the
Transantarctic Mountains has become increasingly hyperarid since the middle
Miocene as refl ected by the presence of soils derived from silt-rich till from a warm-
based glacier (Bockheim
2013
).
11.6
Cryosols in Archaeology
Humans have occupied the Arctic for 13,000 years (Buckland et al.
2011
) and high
mountains such as the Altai for at least 2,500 years (Epov et al.
2012
). Although
Antarctica has never had a native, permanent human population, early sealers and
whales from the past 200 years have left an imprint (Villagran et al.
2013
).
Cryosols have received less attention in archaeological studies than other soil
orders. There are several reasons for this: the total number of people living above
the Arctic Circle (66.56°N) is around four million in an area of over 12 million km
2
,
there are no permanent settlements above 78°N or in Antarctica, and the high alpine
environments have had only sparse settlement, primarily in the Andes, Himalayas,
and Altai.
