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Rates of Soil Development from Four Soil Chronosequences in the Southern Great Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jennifer W. Harden ,
Emily M. Taylor ,
Cindy Hill ,
Robert K. Mark ,
Leslie D. McFadden ,
Marith C. Reheis ,
Janet M. Sowers  and
Steven G. Wells
Jennifer W. Harden
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
Emily M. Taylor
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 613 Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225
Cindy Hill
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
Robert K. Mark
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
Leslie D. McFadden
Affiliation:
Geology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
Marith C. Reheis
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 613 Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225
Janet M. Sowers
Affiliation:
5844 San Jose Avenue, Richmond, CA 94804
Steven G. Wells
Affiliation:
Geology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
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Abstract

Four soil chronosequences in the southern Great Basin were examined in order to study and quantify soil development during the Quaternary. Soils of all four areas are developed in gravelly alluvial fans in semiarid climates with 8 to 40 cm mean annual precipitation. Lithologies of alluvium are granite-gneiss at Silver Lake, granite and basalt at Cima Volcanic Field, limestone at Kyle Canyon, and siliceous volcanic rocks at Fortymile Wash. Ages of the soils are approximated from several radiometric and experimental techniques, and rates are assessed using a conservative mathematical approach. Average rates for Holocene soils at Silver Lake are about 10 times higher than for Pleistocene soils at Kyle Canyon and Fortymile Wash, based on limited age control. Holocene soils in all four areas appear to develop at similar rates, and Pleistocene soils at Kyle Canyon and Fortymile Wash may differ by only a factor of 2 to 4. Over time spans of several millennia, a preferred model for the age curves is not linear but may be exponential or parabolic, in which rates decrease with increasing age. These preliminary results imply that the geographical variation in rates within the southern Great Basin-Mojave region may be much less significant than temporal variation in rates of soil development. The reasons for temporal variation in rates and processes of soil development are complexly linked to climatic change and related changes in water and dust, erosional history, and internally driven chemical and physical processes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 35 , Issue 3-Part1 , May 1991 , pp. 383 - 399
Copyright
University of Washington

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