A guide for using soil and weathering profile data in chronosequence studies of the coastal plain of the Eastern United States
Year: 1989
Type: report
Abstract: Some geologic investigations of Quaternary deposits, especially in the conterminous United States, have attempted to use relative degrees of weathering and soil formation to establish chronosequences of glacial and (or) fluvial landforms.Most studies have been in the glacial terrane of the midcontinent and the Western United States.Few such studies have been conducted in the Eastern United States, especially in the unglaciated Middle Atlantic and Southeastern States.From 1979 to 1984, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service conducted cooperative regional studies of the relations between soils and geology in the Middle Atlantic and Southeastern States.The primary goal of the studies was to determine if soil properties could be used to estimate ages of associated landforms.Coral, wood fragments, and peat were sampled from constructional landforms of fluvial and marine origin in order to estimate ages by isotopic analyses; these ages were then related to regional biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic correlations.Specific site investigations were conducted on Pliocene to Holocene marine and fluvial terraces in the Atlantic and eastern Gulf Coastal Plains and the Appalachian Piedmont.Soils on granite, schist, and quartzite parent rocks of the Appalachian Piedmont were sampled to test the use of soil properties as indicators of soil age.Each chapter of this bulletin series examines the relation of soils to geology in a specific geographic area.The cooperative study involved research scientists from both agencies and field personnel from State offices of the Soil Conservation Service.Responsibility for sample analysis was divided between the Department of Agriculture's National Soil Survey Laboratory in Lincoln, Nebr., and the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.This report was prepared by scientists from both agencies who participated in specific site investigations or in studies of pedogenic processes.
DOI: 10.3133/b1589d
Language: English
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7549461