Geomorphology Commons^™

Soils And Paleosols, Daniel R. Muhs

Publications of the US Geological Survey

This article reviews the nature of modern and ancient soils. Soils are naturally occurring bodies that mantle most of the land surface of the Earth. They are found on virtually every part of the Earth’s land surface, other than areas covered by water bodies (lakes and rivers), glacial ice, or steep slopes in mountainous terrain. Soils occur at the interface of the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere and are the medium of growth for much of the Earth’s plant and animal life. The study of soils as naturally occurring bodies on the Earth’s surface is called pedology (in contrast to …