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Fragipan Horizon

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Soil Geography of the USA

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Abstract

Soils with restricting layers occur in all parts of the world. Some of these layers are saturated with water or permanently frozen. In many soils, the restricting layer has a geogenic origin due to limited weathering or lithological discontinuities. The pedogenic accumulation of clay, carbonates, gypsum, iron, silica, or a combination of these can also lead to the formation of a hard and dense horizon. Some root-restricting layers are the result of high concentrations of salts or other substances that affect plant growth. Soils with restricting layers occur in most of the soil orders of Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff 2010). Examples are petrocalcic and petrogypsic horizons, duripans, ortstein, placic horizons, plinthite, and fragipans. The formation of these horizons and layers is fairly well-understood except for fragipans.

Bockheim, J.G., Hartemink, A.E. 2013. Soils with fragipans in the USA. Catena 104:233–242. Acknowledgment is given to Elsevier Publishers for allowing a revision of this article to be published herein.

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  1. Soil Science Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    James G. Bockheim

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Bockheim, J.G. (2014). Fragipan Horizon. In: Soil Geography of the USA. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06668-4_15

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