Soil-forming processes

Abstract

Implicit among the features by which soils are recognized and classified are processes that formed them. Such processes are more readily observed in modern soils than in paleosols in which they ceased to act long ago. Nevertheless, processes often can be inferred from features of paleosols or from suites of paleosols. The reconstruction of processes gives meaning and connection to features and kinds of paleosols. One way to learn about soils is to memorize the main features of the principal kinds known. Real profiles do not always match such models exactly. Identification can be aided by understanding soil-forming processes which may have interacted to produce peculiarities of a particular profile.