Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 24
Soils with Lamellae
24.1
Introduction
Soils in many parts of the world contain fine-textured pedogenic layers that have been
referred to as “fibers,” “clay bands” (Berg 1984 ), “texture bands” (Hannah and Zahner
1970 ; Kemp and McIntosh 1989 ), “illuvial bands” (Prusinkiewicz et al. 1998 ), “tex-
tural subsoil lamellae” (Dijkerman et al. 1967 ; Miles and Franzmeier 1981 ), “illuvial
clay lamellae” (Johnson et al. 2008 ), and “lamellae” (Schaetzl 1992 ;Hollidayand
Rawling 2006 ). The lamellae definition is used in Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff
2010 ), where soils containing lamellae are distinguished at the subgroup level. In Soil
Taxonomy , a lamella is an illuvial soil horizon less than 7.5 cm thick that contains an
accumulation of oriented silicate clay on or bridging sand and silt grains. Lamellae
play an important role in the flux of water and nutrients, especially in coarse-textured
soils and, therefore, on plant growth (Hannah and Zahner 1970 ). Lamellae have been
used as soil stratigraphic markers and relative-age indicators in archeological studies
(Gile 1979 ; Miles and Franzmeier 1981 ; Holliday and Rawling 2006 ).
One of the first studies on lamellae in the USAwas that of Folks and Riecken ( 1956 )
in sandy soils of IA. They discovered that the lamellae were enriched in clay and Fe;
and they were able to produce lamellae in the laboratory. Thorp et al. ( 1959 ) described
ribbons of dark brown clay along joints in the C horizon of a Miami silt loam (Oxyaquic
Hapludalfs) in IN. Lamellae have been studied elsewhere in the USA, including the
outwash plains of MI (Wurman et al. 1959 ; Dijkerman et al. 1967 ; Hannah and Zahner
1970 ; Schaetzl 1992 , 2001 ), sand dunes in IL (Berg 1984 ) and IN (Miles and
Franzmeier 1981 ), and the southern high plains (Gray et al. 1976 ; Gile 1979 ; Holliday
and Rawling 2006 ). In his review Rawling ( 2000 ) suggested that lamellae originate
from (1) pedologic (argilluviation, neoformation, frost migration), (2) geologic (depo-
sitional), and (3) a combination of pedologic and geologic processes.
Bockheim, J.G., Hartemink, A.E. 2013a. Classification and distribution of soils with lamellae in
the USA. Geoderma 206:92-100. Acknowledgment is given to Elsevier Publishers for allowing a
revision of this article to be published herein.
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