SOIL GEOMORPHOLOGY(coined by Ruhe, 1974)

• “The study of soils and their use in evaluating landform evolution and age, landform stability, surface processes, and past climates” (Margaret Berry)

• New: Schaetzl and Anderson (2005); Holliday (2004, 2006)

Petecasso in Lu and Godt, 2013

SOIL GEOMORPHOLOGY—EARLY DAYS

Jenny

USGS-MILITARY GEOLOGY UNIT

Morrison

Richmond

Hunt Thorp

Ruhe (Battleship Iowa)

1941 book ClORPT

SOIL GEOMORPHOLOGY—LATER DAYS

1965 INQUA

GSA FOP Tonkin Gerson

MIDCONTINENT

1965 INQUA

FIELD TRIPS OVERSEAS VISITORS

J. FryeRuhe

UNIVERSITIES AND FAMILY TREES—1960s onFRONT RANGE

AND PIEDMONT

WORK

Les McFaddenU. of New Mexico

Francis HoleU. of Wisconsin

Don JohnsonU. of Illinois

USGS University of Colorado

VERY PRODUCTIVE PROGRAMS-USDAIOWA-50s and 60s

Ruhe and Daniels

Yarmouth-Sangamon buried soilLate SangamonLate Wisconsin

South of Adair, Iowa

Modern

VERY PRODUCTIVE PROGRAMS-USDADESERT RESEARCH PROJECT (NM)—MOST PRODUCTIVE--60s and 70s

Hawley Hawley and Gile GilePlus Grossman, Peterson, Ruhe

VERY PRODUCTIVE PROGRAMS-USGS • ACROSS USA, BY USGS AND UNIVERSITIES--70s and 80s

• TO ESTIMATE AGES OF LANDSCAPES

Plus Machette, Markewich, Pavich

Marchand Harden

SOIL DETOUR TO TAXONOMY AND CLASSIFICATION

SOIL-FORMING FACTORS: PARENT MAT’L (P)Simple Complex

Layers—geologic vs. pedogenic

Dust• Local vs. global

• Morrison (1967)soil-forming intervals

become dust

Reheis dust traps Dust

(A)

Wea

ther

ing

(B)

AB

MAP (mm)Pye (1987)

PYE ILLUSTRATED

ALLUVIUM(Israel)

LOESS/TILL(New Zealand)

EPISODIC LOESS/BURIED SOILS(China)

THIN DUST/CARBONATE REEF (Mare)

ARID

TROPICS

FACTORS: TIME(T)

• QUANTIFY PROPERTIES

• GLOBAL TIME TEMPLATE

• PATHWAYS:

• MODELSProgressive-regressive (Johnson, Watson-Stegner, 1987)

Thresholds (Muhs, 1984)Martinson et al., 1987

• ALL CLIMATES COVERED

TIME AND CLIMATELAB DATA

Vidic (1997)

• Clay mimics Fed

Age (years)

PDI

USGS QUATERNARY MAPPING

Shroba et al., 2014

from McFadden, 1988

Vidic, 1997

FIELD DATA

TIME AND CLIMATE SUMMARY

Maximum ~ 60% clay, 10R

(1+ Myr SE USA, Colorado Piedmont)

Fe

DRY CLIMATES

DRY, HOT• Stage = age• Rate varies with ppt,

dust influx, etc (greater during interglacials)

Gile and Grossman, 1979; Gile and others, 1981

Machette (1985):

SOILS DETECTING CLIMATE CHANGEYaalon’s (1971) persistent horizons: good results with CaCO3

Overlapping wet-dry

properties (Btk)

• Modellers arrive

• Move water curve to right• Now run this for 2 Myr of climate change (Reheis, 1987)

McFadden and Tinsley (1985)

Mayer and others, 1988

FACTOR: TOPOGRAPHY (R)WET CATENAS—NEW ZEALAND

• Massive chemical redistribution and removal

OEBsC

Tonkin and others, 1977Young and others, 1979

Birkeland, 1994

20 ka

FACTOR: TOPOGRAPHY (R)• DRY--IDAHO

20 ka

140 ka

• Clay ~mimics Fe

• Profiles develop while slopes flatten

• Use to estimate slope stability

Berry, 1987

Fed

Fed

APPLICATIONS—ARCHEOLOGY

RUSSIA

SOILS• ESSENTIAL FOR STRATIGRAPHY• SUGGEST AGES AND ENVIRONMENT

LUBBOCK, TX (Holliday, 1985)

APPLICATIONS—NEOTECTONICS

(McCalpin, 2009)

• Catena limits age (McCalpin and Berry, 1996)

Machette (1978)

% CaCO3

Machette, 1978

BURIED DOWNFAULTED SOILS

SOILS AND YUCCA MTN REPOSITORYCLIMATE CHANGE

GROUNDWATER FLOW

Taylor, 1986

Taylor and Buckins, 1995

Quade and Cerling, 1990

SOILS AND YUCCA MTN REPOSITORYVOLCANISM FAULTING

Wells et al., 1990

NTS AND YUCCA MTN

NEW ZEALAND MODEL—EROSION RATE vs SOIL RESIDENCE TIME

WEST EAST

Dominant soil profile:A/R

A/C

Residence time: 200 yr

A/Bw/C

10-20 kyrTonkin and Basher, 1990

SUMMARY• We have…

Chinese fortune cookie

You will step on the soil of many countries

• …chased down many of Jenny’s Factors

• Jenny was a visionary and would be proud to have influenced the direction of soil geomorphology

COLORADO FRONT RANGE-estimating age for surfaces and hillslopes

Hillslope

Surface

Hillslope

• Soil development greater with lower canyon incision rates (Dethier et al., 2012)

• Soil on surface vs. canyon incision rate (0.15 m/kyr) means relief is increasing

• Can “date” (residence time) most hillslopes