Hornblende etching and quartz/feldspar ratios as weathering and soil development indicators in some Michigan soils

2004 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie R. Mikesell ◽  
Randall J. Schaetzl ◽  
Michael A. Velbel
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Surficial Sediments ◽  
Time Duration ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Weathered Soils ◽  
Outwash Plain

Weathering can be used as a highly effective relative age indicator. One such application involves etching of hornblende grains in soils. Etching increases with time (duration) and decreases with depth in soils and surficial sediments. Other variables, related to intensity of weathering and soil formation, are generally held as constant as possible so as to only minimally influence the time–etching relationship. Our study focuses on one of the variables usually held constant–climate–by examining hornblende etching and quartz/feldspar ratios in soils of similar age but varying degrees of development due to climatic factors. We examined the assumption that the degree of etching varies as a function of soil development, even in soils of similar age. The Spodosols we studied form a climate-mediated development sequence on a 13,000-yr-old outwash plain in Michigan. Their pedogenic development was compared to weathering-related data from the same soils. In general, soils data paralleled weathering data. Hornblende etching was most pronounced in the A and E horizons, and decreased rapidly with depth. Quartz/feldspar ratios showed similar but more variable trends. In the two most weakly developed soils, the Q/F ratio was nearly constant with depth, implying that this ratio may not be as effective a measure as are etching data for minimally weathered soils. Our data indicate that hornblende etching should not be used as a stand-alone relative age indicator, especially in young soils and in contexts where the degree of pedogenic variability on the geomorphic surface is large.

Mid-Holocene Erosion of Soil Catenas on Moraines near the Type Pinedale Till, Wind River Range, Wyoming

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E. Dahms
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Type Locality ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Relative Age ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Wind River Range ◽  
Age Studies

AbstractBuried soils are described from the floors of four kettles on Pinedale piedmont moraines of the southwestern Wind River Range, Wyoming, near the type locality of the Pinedale Till. The buried soils indicate that a previously unreported episode of slope erosion has occurred along adjacent catenas on some of the moraines in this region. Radiocarbon ages of the buried soils indicate that slope erosion occurred during the middle Holocene from 8540 ± 190 to 4800 ± 60 14C yr B.P. The presence of buried soils in moraine kettles indicates that profiles on the crests and backslopes of some of the moraines in this region are not the products of continuous post-Pinedale soil formation. Rather, the crest and backslope soils on Pinedale moraines result from two periods of soil development separated by an interval of erosion. Thus, soils on crests and backslopes are considered to be welded profiles. Relative-age studies that use soil data to estimate the age of moraines in this region must take into account the possibility that a mid-Holocene erosion episode affected the genesis and morphology of soils on the moraines. This study corroborates results of previous work that suggests that data from complete catenas are more useful for estimating the characteristic soil development on Quaternary moraines than are data derived from crests alone.

Soil Development Parameters in the Absence of a Chronosequence in a Glaciated Basin of the White Mountains, California-Nevada

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry W. Swanson ◽  
Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk ◽  
Randel J. Southard
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Surface Erosion ◽  
Glacial Deposits ◽  
White Mountains ◽  
Soil Age ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractDetailed mapping and provisional numerical age determinations of glacial deposits in the South Chiatovich Creek Basin of the White Mountains provide an opportunity to evaluate the ability of conventional soil parameters to discriminate first- and second-order glacial events. Sampling and analytical procedures were designed to minimize variation in climate and lithology. When lithology and climate are similar among sites, age trends are more pronounced in both field and chemical soil properties. Profile development indices (PDIs), adjusted by removing melanization and pH, systematically increase with greater soil age, and discriminate first-order, but not second-order, glacial events. The best-fit curve for adjusted PDI data assumes an exponential form and suggests that the rate of soil formation in this region decreases over time, similar to the rate of weathering-rind development. Variation in eolian influx and surface erosion, which are dominant processes affecting soils of the basin, cause major uncertainties in establishing soil age and, hence, soil-development rates. Even on the youngest glacial deposits, soil age is probably significantly less than deposit age due to these geomorphic processes. Soil and weathering parameters imply that these field techniques can be inexpensively employed to define relative chronologies and to assess surface degradation and its impact on surface exposure ages. Results from this study indicate that site-selection strategy for establishing glacial chronologies should be reevaluated. Working with stable residual bedrock surfaces and associated low-relief outwash fans and terraces may prove more productive than focusing on relatively unstable moraine surfaces in tectonically active mountain systems.

scholarly journals Holocene loess deposition and soil formation as competing processes, Matanuska Valley, Southern Alaska

2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Muhs ◽  
John P. McGeehin ◽  
Jossh Beann ◽  
Eric Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Soil Formation ◽  
Source Surface ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Fine Silt ◽  
Silt Content ◽  
Quaternary Climate ◽  
Outwash Plain ◽  
Loess Deposition ◽  
Strong Winds

Although loess–paleosol sequences are among the most important records of Quaternary climate change and past dust deposition cycles, few modern examples of such sedimentation systems have been studied. Stratigraphic studies and 22 new accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages from the Matanuska Valley in southern Alaska show that loess deposition there began sometime after ∼6500 14C yr B.P. and has continued to the present. The silts are produced through grinding by the Matanuska and Knik glaciers, deposited as outwash, entrained by strong winds, and redeposited as loess. Over a downwind distance of ∼40 km, loess thickness, sand content, and sand-plus-coarse-silt content decrease, whereas fine-silt content increases. Loess deposition was episodic, as shown by the presence of paleosols, at distances >10 km from the outwash plain loess source. Stratigraphic complexity is at a maximum (i.e. the greatest number of loesses and paleosols) at intermediate (10–25 km) distances from the loess source. Surface soils increase in degree of development with distance downwind from the source, where sedimentation rates are lower. Proximal soils are Entisols or Inceptisols, whereas distal soils are Spodosols. Ratios of mobile CaO, K2O, and Fe2O3 to immobile TiO2 show decreases in surface horizons with distance from the source. Thus, as in China, where loess deposition also takes place today, eolian sedimentation and soil formation are competing processes. Study of loess and paleosols in southern Alaska shows that particle size can vary over short distances, loess deposition can be episodic over limited time intervals, and soils developed in stabilized loess can show considerable variability under the same vegetation.

Soils of the Plio-Pleistocene: do they distinguish types of interglacial?

1988 ◽  
Vol 318 (1191) ◽  
pp. 539-557 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Parent Material ◽  
Buried Soils ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Stage ◽  
Soil Features ◽  
Land Surfaces ◽  
Climatic Characteristics ◽  
Mathematical Relations ◽  
Approximate Rate

Soils form on land surfaces by the actions of physical, chemical and biological processes on the lithosphere, and are influenced by climate, parent material, relief, organisms and duration of formation. Remnants of Plio-Pleistocene soils may be buried beneath younger deposits or persist on present land surfaces. Their potential for rigorously differentiating interglacials by climatic characteristics is limited by problems of: (i) precise dating of the beginning and end of soil-forming periods; (ii) distinguishing characteristics attributable to climatic factors from those related to parent material, relief, etc; (iii) calculating mathematical relations between measurable soil features and climatic variables; (iv) diagenetic changes in buried soils; (v) recognition and dating of relict features in unburied soils; (vi) loss of many soils by erosion. Some of these problems may be overcome if sequences of buried soils in periglacial loess deposits are used to compare the climates of successive interglacials in Europe and Asia. With the use of the length of interglacials derived from the oceanic record, the interglacials of the past million years are ranked according to approximate rate of soil development in loess. Two provisional equations relating soil development to time and climate are used; a linear relation probably overestimates the effect of time, and a logarithmic one seems to underestimate it. I tentatively suggest that oceanic oxygen-isotope stage 5e was warmer and wetter than the Holocene, stages 7 and 9 were cooler and drier than 5e, and 13-23 were generally warmer and wetter than 1-11.

scholarly journals Cryoturbation leads to iron-organic carbon associations along a permafrost soil chronosequence in northern Alaska

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Joss ◽  
Monique Patzner ◽  
Markus Maisch ◽  
Carsten Mueller ◽  
Andreas Kappler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Permafrost Soil ◽  
Reactive Iron ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Co Precipitation ◽  
Thaw Lakes

In permafrost soils, substantial amounts of organic carbon (OC) are potentially protected from microbial degradation and transformation into greenhouse gases by association with reactive iron (Fe) minerals. As permafrost environments respond to climate change, increased drainage of thaw lakes in permafrost regions is predicted. Soils will subsequently develop on these drained thaw lakes, but the role of Fe-OC associations in future OC stabilization during this predicted soil development is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we have examined Fe-OC associations in organic, cryoturbated and mineral horizons along a 5500-year chronosequence of drained thaw lake basins in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. By applying chemical extractions, we found that ~17 % of the total OC content in cryoturbated horizons is associated with reactive Fe minerals, compared to ~10 % in organic or mineral horizons. As soil development advances, the total stocks of Fe-associated OC more than double within the first 50 years after thaw lake drainage, because of increased storage of Fe-associated OC in cryoturbated horizons (from 8 to 75 % of the total Fe-associated OC stock). Spatially-resolved nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry showed that OC is primarily associated with Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides which were identified by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy as ferrihydrite. High OC:Fe mass ratios (>0.22) indicate that Fe-OC associations are formed via co-precipitation, chelation and aggregation. These results demonstrate that, given the proposed enhanced drainage of thaw lakes under climate change, OC is increasingly incorporated and stabilized by the association with reactive Fe minerals as a result of soil formation and increased cryoturbation.

SOIL DEVELOPMENT IN A 100-YEAR-OLD DIKE NEAR GRAND PRÉ, NOVA SCOTIA

1990 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. BEKE
Keyword(s):  
Marine Sediments ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Silty Clay ◽  
Structural Development ◽  
Silty Clay Loam ◽  
Mineral Horizon ◽  
Surface Mineral ◽  
Similar Site

The morphology and composition were studied of a pair of soil profiles that had developed in a dike which was constructed 100 yr ago from marine sediments of silty clay loam texture. Both profiles had a weakly expressed A-B-C horizon sequence and strong structural development. They had Bm horizons and their exchange complex was dominated by magnesium ions. Organic carbon had accumulated in the surface mineral horizon at a maximum rate of 26.3 g m−2 yr−1. Adverse climatic conditions, typical for this and similar site locations, appeared to impose a limit on soil development. Key words: Soil formation, marine sediments, maritime climate

Three soil chronosequences in recessional glacial deposits near the polar plateau, in the Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua W. Scarrow ◽  
Megan R. Balks ◽  
Peter C. Almond
Keyword(s):  
Soil Chemistry ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Soil Development ◽  
Soil Thickness ◽  
Glacial Retreat ◽  
Soil Material ◽  
Transantarctic Mountains ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Landscape Units ◽  
Exposure Ages

AbstractSoil chronosequences in till deposits emplaced during glacial retreat in the Central Transantarctic Mountains are described. Discrepancies between the degree of soil development and reported cosmogenic surface exposure ages suggest slower, weaker soil development in this region than encountered in other areas of Antarctica. The study sites (Dominion Range, Mount Achernar and Ong Valley) were located between 83° and 85°S, at altitudes of 1600–2200 m, on the edge of the polar plateau. Soil landscape maps show a gradation of soil properties across landscape units that were designated as homogenous/single-event drifts in previous smaller-scale studies. Along transects away from the current ice edge, the depth to underlying ice thickened (from 2 cm to > 80 cm), soil became more weathered, saltier and less alkaline, and horizonation became more pronounced. Soil thickness, clast abundance and soil chemistry are all consistent with a two-layer mode of soil formation. We suggest that a thin, clast-rich surface horizon, originating from weathering of supraglacial debris, overlies a thick, clast-poor sublimation till. The supraglacial debris has a finite contribution to soil volume, whereas sublimation offers an ongoing source of soil material that thickens the soil from its base.

scholarly journals Global COVID-19 spread: socioeconomic determinants and lessons for future pandemics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Ngepah
Keyword(s):  
Development Indicators ◽  
Public Health Systems ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Hygiene Practices ◽  
Sanitation And Hygiene ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Early Testing ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Maximum Likelihood ◽  
World Development

Abstract This paper examines some factors that can complement public health systems in managing the spread of the COVID-19 with implications for preparedness towards possible future pandemics. It adapts and applies two suitable econometric models in the theoretical framework of social determinants of health. The one models are the Poisson’s Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) and the quantile estimator, applied to panel data for 195 countries over days of infection from first recorded case. The COVID-19-related data is from our world in data, and the socioeconomic variables are from the World Bank’s World Development indicators. The results suggest that enhancing capacity for early testing complemented by reduction of international exposure; improved management of population dynamics; ensuring better sanitation and hygiene practices and reducing alcohol use are key to addressing the rapid spread of the COVID-19, and readiness for future pandemics of similar a kind.

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