Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Raw Mineral
Soils
soils lacking continuous development of any horizon above little
altered C parent horizon.
non-calcareous soils with O,C profiles, i.e. with peat resting dir-
ectly on parent material.
Peat Rankers
Brown
Rankers
non-calcareous soils with A,C or Ah,C profiles.
Rendzinas
calcareous soils with A
Ca
, C
Ca
or Ah
Ca
, C
Ca
profiles.
Brown Earths
soils with A, B, C profiles.
Gleyed Brown
Earths
soils with A, B
g
, C
g
profiles.
Gleys
soils with A
g
, B
g
, C
g
or C
g
profiles.
Peaty Gleys
soils with O, B
g
, C
g
profiles.
Brown Podzol-
ic Soils
soils with A or Ah, B
s
, C or C
g
profiles.
Podzols
soils with Oh or Ah, E
a
, B
h
and/or B
s
, C profiles.
Peaty Podzols
soils with O, E
a
g, B
s
, C or C
g
profiles.
Organic Soils
soils with O horizons only.
Raw Mineral Soils,
also called Immature Soils, include materials such as re-
cently deposited wind-blown sands, or emergent marshland silts. The initial establish-
ment of vegetation on these new land surfaces is followed by development of soil ho-
rizons as the surfaces become stabilized. The immature soil can develop further from
this stage into other fully developed soil types. If the transient nature of surface stabil-
ity persists, then developed profiles can become covered by a further supply of new
material. Dunes, in fact, often show several buried profiles superimposed on each oth-
er, representing cycles of alternating stability and instability. In the marshland case,
their silts are likely to have been derived from different horizons in other soils, before
their transport in rivers and estuaries to become fresh marshland. As they become cut
off, naturally or artificially, from further surface cover in their new situation, they ef-
fectively become a new parent material.
Rankers
are shallow soils with simple profiles, in which mineral or peaty (A
material with a subordinate mineral component. Although their profiles allow water
