The Identification, Lateral Variation, and Chronology of two Buried Paleocatenas at Woodhall Spa and West Runton, England

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 551-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.W.G. Valentine ◽  
J.B. Dalrymple

Two buried paleocatenas were studied to determine some features and techniques by which buried soils could be recognized, and to define their pedological characteristics, their lateral variation, and their contemporary environment. At Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, a ferric podzol to sandy gley sequence was developed in sands under marine clay and fen peat. The peat was radiocarbon dated at about 4100 yr BP. The buried soil was evident from its obvious catenary character and the soil characteristics and contemporary environment were determined using sand mineralogy, micromorphology, and pollen analysis. At West Runton, Norfolk, an apparently similar ferric podzol sequence occurred in Beestonian sands and gravels under a layer of Cromerian organic muds. However, only the uppermost profile contained definite evidence of soil formation. Other lower profiles contained pseudosoil features produced by sedimentation or diagenetic subsurface iron mobilization. It is suggested that the occurrence of a paleocatena is the most important criterion for the identification of a buried soil. Sedimentation and diagenesis cannot reproduce this lateral variation.

2006 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Kaiser ◽  
A. Barthelmes ◽  
S. Czakó Pap ◽  
A. Hilgers ◽  
W. Janke ◽  
...  

AbstractA new site with Lateglacial palaeosols covered by 0.8 - 2.4 m thick aeolian sands is presented. The buried soils were subjected to multidisciplinary analyses (pedology, micromorphology, geochronology, dendrology, palynology, macrofossils). The buried soil cover comprises a catena from relatively dry (’Nano’-Podzol, Arenosol) via moist (Histic Gleysol, Gleysol) to wet conditions (Histosol). Dry soils are similar to the so-called Usselo soil, as described from sites in NW Europe and central Poland. The buried soil surface covers ca. 3.4 km2. Pollen analyses date this surface into the late Allerød. Due to a possible contamination by younger carbon, radiocarbon dates are too young. OSL dates indicate that the covering by aeolian sands most probably occurred during the Younger Dryas. Botanical analyses enables the reconstruction of a vegetation pattern typical for the late Allerød. Large wooden remains of pine and birch were recorded.


Author(s):  
Varvara O. Bakumenko ◽  
◽  
Ekaterina G. Ershova ◽  
◽  

In this work we present the results of spore and pollen analysis of forest soils from the Zvenigorod biological station of Moscow State University (Moscow Region, Russia). A comparative analysis of forest soils formed on the site of historical fields of the XVIII–XIX centuries and beyond showed that a specific complex of pollen and spores remains in the residual arable horizons, characteristic only of soils that have passed through the stages of plowing and fallow. It includes pollen from cultivated cereals and arable weeds (buckwheat, cornflower blue), spores of the mace-shaped plaunus (Lycopodium clavatum), as well as spores of the mosses Riccia glauca and Anthoceros spp. The latter are exclusive indicators of fallows, since they are practically not found in other habitats. The identified pollen indicators can be used in landscape and archaeological research to interpret the data of spore-pollen analysis of cultural layers, buried soils, gully-ravine sediments. They can also be used to define the boundaries of ancient fields under modern vegetation.


1996 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Antonio José Teixeira Guerra ◽  
Rosangela Garrido Machado Botelho

This paper regards the role of soil characteristics and properties on pedological surveys and soil erosion investigations. Therefore, the main factors of soil formation are here discussed. Furthermore, the main chemical and physical soil properties are also taken into consideration, in order to approach this subject. Finally, some erosion processes are also carried out, together with the main erosion forms and the environmental impacts caused by these associated processes.


Radiocarbon ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2A) ◽  
pp. 473-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Haas ◽  
Vance Holliday ◽  
Robert Stuckenrath

The Lubbock Lake site, on the Southern High Plains of Texas, contains one of the most complete and best-dated late Quaternary records in North America. A total of 11714C dates arc available from the site, determined by the Smithsonian and SMU Laboratories. Of these dates, 84 have been derived from residues (humin) and humates (humic acids) of organic-rich marsh sediments and A horizons of buried soils. Most of the ages are consistent with dates determined on charcoal and wood, and with the archaeologic and stratigraphic record. The dates on the marsh sediments are approximate points in time. Dates from the top of buried A-horizons are a maximum for burial and in many cases are close to the actual age of burial. Dates from the base of the A-horizons are a minimum for the beginning of soil formation, in some cases as much as several thousand years younger than the initiation of pedogenesis. A few pairs of dates were obtained from humin and humic acid derived from split samples; there are no consistencies in similarities or differences in these age pairs. It also became apparent that dates determined on samples from scraped trench walls or excavations that were left open for several years are younger than dates from samples taken from exactly the same locations when the sampling surfaces were freshly excavated.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyubov A Orlova ◽  
Valentina S Zykina

We have constructed a detailed chronological description of soil formation and its environments with data obtained on radiocarbon ages, palynology, and pedology of the Holocene buried soils in the forest steppe of western and central Siberia. We studied a number of Holocene sections, which were located in different geomorphic situations. Radiocarbon dating of materials from several soil horizons, including soil organic matter (SOM), wood, peat, charcoal, and carbonates, revealed three climatic periods and five stages of soil formation in the second part of the Holocene. 14C ages of approximately 6355 BP, 6020 BP, and 5930 BP showed that the longest and most active stage is associated with the Holocene Climatic Optimum, when dark-grey soils were formed in the forest environment. The conditions of birch forest steppe favored formation of chernozem and associated meadow-chernozem and meadow soils. Subboreal time includes two stages of soil formation corresponding to lake regressions, which were less intense than those of the Holocene Optimum. The soils of that time are chernozem, grassland-chernozem, and saline types, interbedded with thin peat layers 14C dated to around 4555 B P, 4240 BP and 3480 BP, and 3170 B P. Subatlantic time includes two poorly developed hydromorphic paleosols formed within inshore parts of lakes and chernozem-type automorphic paleosol. The older horizon was formed during approximately 2500–1770 BP, and the younger one during approximately 1640–400 B P. The buried soils of the Subatlantic time period also attest to short episodes of lake regression. The climate changes show an evident trend: in the second part of the Atlantic time period it was warmer and drier than at present, and in the Subboreal and Subatlantic time periods the climate was cool and humid.


1987 ◽  
Vol 53 (S2) ◽  
pp. 32-32
Author(s):  
Helen C.M. Keeley

Present-day soils in the Borwick area form the Carnforth Association, i.e. freely drained gravelly brown earths, some calcareous brown earths and peaty gleys and peaty soils in hollows. pH is normally 6 to 7, with some soil pH higher than 7.The buried soil beneath the cairn was a truncated stagnopodzol with a pH of 7.35. The Eag, Bf and Bs horizons were present but the lack of a topsoil and relatively high pH suggested that pollen analysis of the soil would be unproductive. Similarly, detailed soil analysis was unlikely to add to the interpretation of the site and was therefore not pursued. The development of podsolised soils on such gravels is not unusual and may indicate that the vegetation at the time the cairn was constructed was acid grassland or moorland. The soil pH would have been on the acid side at this stage, rising subsequently due to downward leaching of the calcium carbonate from the overlying limestone of the enclosure.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 1385-1400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F Arbogast ◽  
Randall J Schaetzl ◽  
Joseph P Hupy ◽  
Edward C Hansen

A very prominent buried soil crops out in coastal sand dunes along an ~200 km section of the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. This study is the first to investigate the character of this soil — informally described here as the Holland Paleosol — by focusing on six sites from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore north to Montague, Michigan. Most dunes in this region are large (>40 m high) and contain numerous buried soils that indicate periods of reduced sand supply and comcomitant stabilization. Most of these soils are buried in the lower part of the dunes and are thin Entisols. The soil described here, in contrast, is relatively well developed, is buried in the upper part of many dunes, and formed by podzolization under forest vegetation. Radiocarbon dates indicate that this soil formed between ~3000 and 300 calibrated years BP. Pedons of the Holland Paleosol range in development from thick Entisols (Regosols) with A–Bw–BC–C horizonation to weakly developed Spodosols (Podzols) with A–E–Bs–Bw–BC–C profiles. Many profiles have overthickened and (or) stratified A horizons, indicative of slow and episodic burial. Differences in development are mainly due to paleolandscape position and variations in paleoclimate among the sites. The Holland Paleosol is significant because it represents a relatively long period of landscape stability in coastal dunes over a broad (200 km) area. This period of stability was concurrent with numerous fluctuations in Lake Michigan. Given the general sensitivity of coastal dunes to prehistoric lake-level fluctuations, the soil may reflect a time when the lake shore was farther west than it is today. The Holland Paleosol would probably qualify as a formal pedostratigraphic unit if it were buried by a formal lithostratgraphic or allostratigraphic unit.


2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
D Djaenudin

The objective of this research was to study speczfic soil characteristics of Andisols as series differentiae. Five pedons ofCikajang and Cikole regions were studied. Both regions belong to the wet climate, udic soil moisture regime and isothermictemperature regime. As much as 32 soils samples were taken for analysis of physical, chemical and mineralogical propertiesfollows the standard procedures of The Central Research and Development of Soil and Agroclimate laboratory. The speczficsoil properties can be used for soil series dzflerentiae of each soil family. In soil family level, pedon Dn-1, Dn-2, and Dn-4 are classtfied as Typic Hapludand, medial-mixed, isothermic, and pedon Dn-3 and Dn-5 are classrjied as Thaptic Hapludand,medial-mixed, isothermic. Each soil family consists of two soil series. The properties of buried soil, color, texture, and soilreaction are used for soil series dzflerentiae.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kühn ◽  
Dana Pietsch

The Ramlat as-Sab’atayn desert margin near Ma’rib, Yemen, displays well-preserved Early Holocene paleosols that are documented by micromorphological and pedological data. The buried soils, which are represented by Ahb horizons, indicate soil formation mostly before 8.3 cal ka BP. In contrast, sandy cover sediments without signs of pedogenesis appeared between 8.3 and 6.6 cal ka BP due to increasing aridity. Characteristic micromorphological features of the cover sediments are a single grain microstructure, crystallitic b-fabric, predominant occurrence of fresh sideromelane, and remnants of microlayers. Micromorphological pedogenic features in the buried Ah horizons include a subangular blocky microstructure, undifferentiated b-fabric as a result of enrichment of organic matter and decalcification, and the predominant occurrence of completely altered sideromelane. Most of these horizons appeared to be nearly completely decalcified so that in parts a stipple speckled b-fabric and neoformed clay coatings could be detected as a result of stronger weathering and soil formation. Pedogenic data provide important information about Holocene climate fluctuations, including the amount of precipitation, which was calculated on the basis of geochemical data from buried A, AB and B horizons. The buried paleosols represent moist climate conditions with precipitation ranging from 400 to 600 mm a<sup>-1</sup>.


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