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