Paleosol

Paleosol is defined as a soil that formed on a landscape of the past (Yaalon et al. 1971; Retallack 2001). The definition of paleosol is not straightforward as it can vary by geologic discipline. Quaternary geologists often define paleosols as having been buried, exhumed, and/or at the surface as relict soils. In this case, a paleosol must contain evidence of a nonextant soil-forming environment, e.g., glacial climate (Birkeland 1999). Geologists who primarily work in the pre-Quaternary often define paleosols as lithified, fossil soils that document a past landscape (Retallack 2001).

Like modern soils, paleosols record evidence of the physical, chemical, or biological alteration of a preexisting material to a more stable form, i.e., weathering. These weathering features formed partly as a result of five primary environmental factors: (i) climate, (ii) organisms, (iii) relief, and (iv) parent material operating through (v) time (Jenny 1941). Paleosols are therefore valued for their...