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The alluvial plains physiographic region has three main components—alluvial fans, alluvial plains, and wadis. The alluvial plains and fans occur on both sides of the Hajar Mountains. On the western side, however, they are much more extensive (up to 20 km wide) than on the eastern side, where there is rarely more than 2–3 km from the mountain front to the coast.
Most of the alluvial plains are composed of gravel to boulders, with a general trend towards finer alluvium with distance from the mountain front. Near the mountains, the fan heads are usually incised, with channels cutting into coarse alluvium. The middle parts of the fans are generally flat with very low relief and with shallow channels up to 5 m wide. At the foot of most fans, the particle sizes are fine, often sand, with braided channels. In some cases these channels coalesce to form wadis that extend out into the adjacent sand dunes.
The Hajar mountain range has a wealth of attractions for the adventurous traveler, including trekking, rock climbing, canyoning, and off-road exploration. In addition to outdoor activities, there are numerous sights of historic, cultural, and geological interest.
Temperatures in the higher elevations tend to be on average 10-15°C cooler than Muscat, and snow, although very rare, is not unknown. In summer the mountains offer a retreat for those looking to escape the heat baking the rest of Oman and the Arabian peninsula.
This photo is 180 degrees from "A drive through the Rub Al Khali_SE". www.flickr.com/photos/jakelley/21547065940/in/album-72157...
As I was concentrating on photographing the other landscape, I could feel the wind starting to pick up. I turned around and could not believe the sight. This was my first experience with an "HABOOB"; a type of intense dust storm carried on an atmospheric gravity current or weather front. Haboobs occur regularly in arid regions throughout the world. The tallest dunes on the horizon are over 100 feet. The estimated height of the dust cloud of fine sand is over 500 feet.
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Caineville, UT mesa. Caineville is located just off Highway 24 on the east side of Capitol Reef National Park. The town was originally settled along the fertile banks of the Fremont River in 1882. Today Caineville is a sparsely-populated ranching community, offering some tourist amenities such as motel rooms, an RV park, rental teepees, a café, and backcountry tours.
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A Typic Torripsamment from the interior of the UAE.
Torripsamments are the cool to hot Psamments of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Many of these soils are on stable surfaces, some are on dunes, some are stabilized, and some are moving. Torripsamments consist of quartz, mixed sands, volcanic glass, or even gypsum and may have any color. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are nearly level to steep. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs.
Many of these soils support more vegetation than other soils with an aridic moisture regime, presumably because they lose less water as runoff. Some of the soils on dunes support a few ephemeral plants or have a partial cover of xerophytic and ephemeral plants. The shifting dunes may be devoid of plants in normal years. Most of the deposits are of late-Pleistocene or younger age. These soils are used mainly for grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
Psamments are the sandy Entisols. They are sandy in all layers within the particle-size control section. Some formed in poorly graded (well sorted) sands on shifting or stabilized sand dunes, in cover sands, or in sandy parent materials that were sorted in an earlier geologic cycle. Some formed in sands that were sorted by water and are on outwash plains, lake plains, natural levees, or beaches. A few Psamments formed in material weathered from sandstone or granitic bedrock. Psamments occur under any climate, but they cannot have permafrost within 100 cm of the soil surface. They can have any vegetation and are on surfaces of virtually any age from recent historic to Pliocene or older. The Psamments on old stable surfaces commonly consist of quartz sand. Ground water typically is deeper than 50 cm and commonly is much deeper.
Psamments have a relatively low water-holding capacity. Those that are bare and become dry are subject to soil blowing and drifting and cannot easily support wheeled vehicles. Because very gravelly sands do not have the two qualities just described, they are excluded from Psamments and are grouped with Orthents. Thus, not all Entisols that have a sandy texture are Psamments.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
Although hydric soils are typically associated with level or nearly level landscapes, the soils along this lower mountain side are hydric due to seepage and very high rainfall levels. In climates where precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration in all months of normal years, the moisture tension rarely reaches 100 kPa in the soil moisture control section, although there are occasional brief periods when some stored moisture is used. The water moves through the soil in all months when it is not frozen. Such an extremely wet soil moisture regime is called perudic.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
Liwa Oasis, UAE. Sand sheets are relatively flat, undulating plots of sand. They form approximately 40 percent of aeolian depositional surfaces. Sand sheets exist where grain size is too large, or wind velocities too low, for dunes to form.
This region lies in the south of the Emirate adjacent to the Rub
al Khali. It comprises rolling to steep high mega-barchan dunes with broad intervening valleys that have frequently been graded and developed for irrigated agriculture. Occasionally interdunal depressions are deflated to the capillary fringe resulting in saline sabkha flats.
Leading edge of a sand sheet. The moving of a sea of sand.
Sand dunes are lessons in artistry - in how a slight change can modify the external outcome quickly and irreversibly. If we think a ripple pattern to be unique, maybe even exotic, does its beauty exist if no one sees it? (Richard Arnold, former Director, Soil Survey Division, USDA-NRCS)
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Sand sheets are relatively flat, undulating plots of sand. They form approximately 40 percent of aeolian depositional surfaces. Sand sheets exist where grain size is too large, or wind velocities too low, for dunes to form.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
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Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals. Types of rangelands include tallgrass and shortgrass prairies, desert grasslands and shrublands, woodlands, savannas, chaparrals, steppes, and tundras. Rangelands do not include forests lacking grazable understory vegetation, barren desert, farmland, or land covered by solid rock, concrete and/or glaciers.
Rangelands are distinguished from pasture lands because they grow primarily native vegetation, rather than plants established by humans. Rangelands are also managed principally with practices such as managed livestock grazing and prescribed fire rather than more intensive agricultural practices of seeding, irrigation, and the use of fertilizers.
Grazing is an important use of rangelands but the term "rangeland" is not synonymous with "grazinglands". Livestock grazing can be used to manage rangelands by harvesting forage to produce livestock, changing plant composition or reducing fuel loads.
The Nakai soil series (foreground) consists of deep, and very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils that formed in mixed alluvium and eolian deposits derived mainly from sandstone and shale. Nakai soils are on river terraces, sand sheets on structural benches, cuestas, fans and broad valleys and have slopes of 0 to 15 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 7 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Haplocalcids
USE AND VEGETATION: Used primarily for livestock grazing. The potential vegetation is Indian ricegrass, galleta grass, dropseed, snakeweed, Mormon-tea, and Russian thistle.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. The series is extensive. MLRA 35.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Aneth Area, San Juan County, Utah, 1972.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/N/NAKAI.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#nakai
Myton soils and Rock outcrop (mid-ground).
The Myton series consists of deep and very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils on hillslopes and mountain slopes. Myton soils formed in colluvium derived from sandstone and shale. Slopes range from 30 to 70 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 8 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Typic Torriorthents
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for livestock grazing Vegetation is blackbrush, shadscale, saline wildrye, and galleta.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah. The series is of moderate
extent. MLRA 35.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MYTON.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Chugach Mountains of southern Alaska are the northernmost of the several mountain ranges that make up the Pacific Coast Ranges of the western edge of North America. The range is about 250 miles (402 km) long and 60 miles (97 km) wide, and extends from the Knik and Turnagain Arms of the Cook Inlet on the west to Bering Glacier, Tana Glacier, and the Tana River on the east. It is bounded on the north by the Matanuska, Copper, and Chitina rivers. The highest point of the Chugach Mountains is Mount Marcus Baker, at 12,884 feet (3,927 m), but with an average elevation of 4,006 feet (1,221 m), most of its summits are not especially high. Even so its position along the Gulf of Alaska ensures more snowfall in the Chugach than anywhere else in the world; an annual average of over 1500 cm (600 in).
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Zakher Lake (formerly called Zakher Pools) is a large lake mainly consisting of spillwater and ground water in the desert, 12 kilometers west of the base of Jebel Hafeet.
Jabal Ḥafeet, literally "empty mountain" is a mountain located primarily in the area of Al Ain, which itself is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Part of the mountain straddles the border with Oman, while the summit is located wholly within United Arab Emirates.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
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Soils in the foreground are Talkeetna-Chugach-Histic Cryaquepts association, cool, 10 to 70 percent slopes:
The Talkeetna series consists of deep to very deep, well drained soils that formrd in ash-influenced loess overlying friable to firm glacial till. They are on mountain slopes, hills, ridges, and structural benches with slopes of 0 to 85 percent. The mean annual precipitation is 35 to 50 inches nd mean annual temperature is 33 to 36 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Medial over loamy-skeletal, amorphic over mixed, superactive Andic Humicryods
USE AND VEGETATION: Wildlife habitat and recreation. Native vegetation is alder, willow, tall grass, and other shrubs and forbs. A few areas are used for summer grazing.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRA 224 Cook Inlet Lowland, South-central, Alaska. The series is of moderate extent.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/T/TALKEETNA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#talkeetna
The Chugach series consists of very deep, well drained soils formed in a thin mantle of ash influenced loess overlying very gravelly glacial outwash. Chugach soils are on mountains and structural benches. Slopes range from 3 to 85 percent. The mean annual precipitation is about 35 inches, and the mean annual temperature is about 34 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed Andic Humicryods
USE AND VEGETATION: Wildlife habitat and recreation.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southcentral Alaska Mountains. The series is of small extent.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CHUGACH.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#chugach
Histic Cryaquepts (a hydric soil) have a histic epipedon but otherwise are like Typic Cryaquepts. They tend to have ground water at a higher level than in the soils of the Typic subgroup, and shallow water stands for some time above the soil surface. Histic Cryaquepts are considered intergrades to Histosols. They are of small extent in the United States and occur mostly in southern Alaska and in the high mountains of the Northwestern States. Most of the Histic Cryaquepts support native vegetation. They support forest vegetation or watertolerant shrubs and grasses. Histic Cryaquepts are used mainly as forest and wildlife habitat.
The histic epipedon is a layer of organic soil that is naturally saturated with water. It consists of organic soil material (peat or muck) if the soil has not been plowed. If the soil has been plowed, the epipedon normally has a high content of organic matter that results from mixing organic soil material with some mineral material.
It is thick (20- to 60-cm, or 8- to 24-inch) and is saturated with water at some period of the year (unless the soil is artificially drained) and that is at or near the surface of a mineral soil.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/alaska/AK605/0...
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For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Soil Survey Manual, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
To directly access soils data/map, visit “Web Soil Survey”;
Farmers bring their loose grass to a central location where it is bailed and prepared for shipping and sale. I observed two areas where this occurred. The other was in the Liwa Oasis area. Most of the UAE's cultivated land is taken up by date palms, which in the early 1990s numbered about 4 million.
The camel calf was just born and is being introduced to its sibling. The Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius), is a large, even-toed ungulate with one hump on its back. The dromedary is the smallest of the three species of camel; adult males stand 1.8–2 m (5.9–6.6 ft) at the shoulder, while females are 1.7–1.9 m (5.6–6.2 ft) tall. Males typically weigh between 400 and 600 kg (880 and 1,320 lb), and females weigh between 300 and 540 kg (660 and 1,190 lb). The species' distinctive features include its long, curved neck, narrow chest, a single hump (compared with two on the Bactrian camel and wild Bactrian camel), and long hairs on the throat, shoulders and hump. The coat is generally a shade of brown. The hump, 20 cm (7.9 in) tall or more, is made of fat bound together by fibrous tissue.
Dromedaries are mainly active during daylight hours. They form herds of about 20 individuals, which are led by a dominant male. This camel feeds on foliage and desert vegetation; several adaptations, such as the ability to tolerate losing more than 30% of its total water content, allow it to thrive in its desert habitat. Mating occurs annually and peaks in the rainy season; females bear a single calf after a gestation of 15 months.
The dromedary has not occurred naturally in the wild for nearly 2,000 years. It was probably first domesticated in Somalia or the Arabian Peninsula about 4,000 years ago. In the wild, the dromedary inhabited arid regions, including the Sahara Desert. The domesticated dromedary is generally found in the semi-arid to arid regions of the Old World, mainly in Africa, and a significant feral population occurs in Australia. Products of the dromedary, including its meat and milk, support several north Arabian tribes; it is also commonly used for riding and as a beast of burden.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
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Barx very fine sandy loam, 1 to 4 percent slopes (foreground).
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
The Barx series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in alluvium or slope alluvium, including reworked eolian material derived from sandstone. These soils are on fan remnants, structural benches, dipslopes, plateaus and mesas. Slopes are from 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 279 mm, and mean annual temperature is about 9.4 degrees C.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Ustic Calciargids
USE AND VEGETATION:
These soils are used mainly for rangeland. Native vegetation is Indian ricegrass, galleta, Wyoming big sagebrush, and winterfat.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Barx soils are extensive in southeastern and central Utah, northwestern Arizona, and southwestern Colorado, about 350,000 acres.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/B/BARX.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Crider Series--Kentucky State Soil:
www.soils4teachers.org/files/s4t/k12outreach/ky-state-soi...
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/kentucky/chris...
The Crider series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands. They formed in a loess mantle and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. Crider soils are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. Many areas are undulating to rolling karst topography. The upper 20 to 45 inches of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum or old alluvium.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco, and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forest, chiefly of oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal and the western Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky; the northern part of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, Illinois and possibly northeast Arkansas. The soil is of large extent, about 1,000,000 acres.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
Photo courtesy of EAD-Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. www.ead.gov.ae/
Saline soils contain enough soluble salts to injure plants. They are characterized by white or light brown crusts on the surface. Saline soils usually have an EC of more than 4 mmho cm-1. Salts generally found in saline soils include NaCl (table salt), CaCl2, gypsum (CaSO4), magnesium sulfate, potassium chloride and sodium sulfate.
This region represents the low lying coastal flats dominated by saline soils and slightly higher gypsic rises but including some areas of carbonatic sand sheets underlain by miliolite.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
Xinxing County is a county of the prefecture-level city of Yunfu in Guangdong, China.
The government of China has placed great importance on work relating to agriculture, rural areas, and the rural population. Since the convening of the Sixteenth National Congress, the government has implemented a series of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit the rural population, and enable people in rural areas to prosper and thus ensuring balanced development of urban and rural areas. These efforts have brought about remarkable advances in China's agricultural and rural development. China's grain output has grown steadily for years, and overall progress has been made in farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery. The development of agriculture is our number one priority and the key focus of our macro-control policies.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
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Foreground: Sheppard-Massadona-Monue complex, 0 to 10 percent slopes.
The Sheppard series consists of very deep, somewhat excessively drained soils that formed in eolian material derived from sandstone. Sheppard soils are on structural benches, alluvial fans, dunes on structural benches, and terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 60 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Mixed, mesic Typic Torripsamments (No diagnostic features)
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for livestock grazing. Potential vegetation is Mormon-tea, Indian ricegrass, galleta, and Russian thistle.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeast Utah, northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southwest Colorado. LRR D, MLRA 35. This series is of large extent.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/S/SHEPPARD.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#sheppard
The Massadona series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in alluvium derived from shale. Massadona soils are on hills, toeslopes, and alluvial fans. Slopes range from 0 to 12 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 10 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 47 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, smectitic, mesic Typic Haplocambids
USE AND VEGETATION: Monue soils are used for livestock grazing. Vegetation is galleta grass, Indian ricegrass, spike dropseed, winterfat, and sand dropseed.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah and northern Arizona.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MASSADONA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#massadona
The Monue series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils on stream terraces, fan terraces, and eolian deposits on structural benches. Monue soils are formed in alluvium and eolian materials from sandstone. Slopes are 1 to 15 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 7 inches (178 mm) and the mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F (12 degrees C).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Haplocambids
USE AND VEGETATION: Monue soils are used for livestock grazing. Vegetation is galleta grass, Indian ricegrass, spike dropseed, winterfat, and sand dropseed.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah and northern Arizona.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MONUE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#monue
Background: Torriorthents-Rock outcrop complex, 25 to 65 percent slopes. Torriorthents are the dry Orthents of cool to hot, arid regions. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are on moderate to very steep slopes. A few are on gentle slopes. Many of the gently sloping soils are on rock pediments, are very shallow, have a sandy-skeletal particle-size class, or are salty. Others are on fans where sediments are recent but have little organic carbon. The vegetation on Torriorthents commonly is sparse and consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs and ephemeral grasses and forbs. The vegetation on a few of the soils is saltgrass. Torriorthents are used mainly for grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
Rock outcrop are miscellaneous areas that have little or no identifiable soil and thus supports little or no vegetation without major reclamation. They are exposures of bare bedrock. If needed, map units can be named according to the kind of rock, e.g., “Rock outcrop, limestone.”
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For more information about describing soils using the USDA-Soil Survey Manual, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=n...
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Its surface elevation varies from 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the southwest to around sea level in the northeast. The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft), interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is of a reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar. There are also brackish salt flats in some areas, such as the Umm al Samim area on the desert's eastern edge. Along the middle length of the desert there are a number of raised, hardened areas of calcium carbonate, gypsum, marl, or clay that were once the site of shallow lakes.
These lakes existed during periods from 6,000 to 5,000 years ago and 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. The lakes are thought to have formed as a result of "cataclysmic rainfall" similar to present-day monsoon rains and most probably lasted for only a few years. Evidence suggests that the lakes were home to a variety of flora and fauna. Fossil remains indicate the presence of several animal species, such as hippopotamus, water buffalo, and long-horned cattle. The lakes also contained small snails, ostracods, and when conditions were suitable, freshwater clams. Deposits of calcium carbonate and opal phytoliths indicate the presence of plants and algae.
There is also evidence of human activity dating from 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, including chipped flint tools, but no actual human remains have been found. The region is classified as "hyper-arid", with typical annual rainfall of less than 3 centimetres (1.2 in). Daily maximum temperatures average at 47 °C (117 °F) and can reach as high as 51 °C (124 °F). Fauna includes arachnids (e.g. scorpions) and rodents, while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, the Rub' al Khali falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands. The Asiatic cheetahs, once widespread in Saudi Arabia, are regionally extinct from the desert.
Geologically, the Empty Quarter is one of the most oil-rich sites in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand dunes. Sheyba, at the northeastern edge of the Rub' al Khali, is a major light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter.
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We were making a Natural Resources Survey for 8th Army in the CCZ when coming across this unexploded 105mm artillery shell.
www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/7/708#:~:text=As%20established%....
In South Korea are areas adjacent to the DMZ referred to as the Civilian Control Zone (CCZ) where public access is restricted. Most of these areas are heavily farmed.
South Korean farmers see these areaa adjecent to the DMZ as valuable soil, frequently planting crops despite warnings to stay away, a typical example of how South Korea's population has encroached on once-rural training areas.
In 1996 and 1998, unexploded ordnance killed two Korean civilians who had entered the Story range to look for scrap metal. Unexploded munitions and live-fire exercises make the area very dangerous. Unexploded ordnance in that area presents a very real and significant danger to anyone walking in the area. This danger is greatly amplified if someone is planting or harvesting crops... or sampling soils!
The South Korean Army supervises farming. Farmers must have a pass to cross any of the three bridges, guarded by South Korean soldiers, leading to the CCZ. Normally, range control officials and Army explosive ordnance disposal teams would clear munitions from the area annually. But many of these areas are swampy, and teams can only look on the surface.
Additionally, the entire area just south of the DMZ is rife with mines. Many are newer mines laid by the South Korean Army as part of the DMZ defense. But there are unmarked mine fields, and monsoon rains shift mines around. Korean contractors and 8th Army personnel have uncovered numerous mines and munitions while conducting maintenance, training, or surveys.
Soil profile: A representative soil profile of the Cososa series in an area of Cososa loamy sand, 0 to 3 percent slopes. (Soil Survey of Costilla County Area, Colorado; by By Alan J. Stuebe, Natural Resources Conservation)
Landscape: A potato field in Costilla County on Cososa loamy sand, 0 to 3 percent slopes (Soil Survey cover). These soils are on outwash plains, outwash fans, and outwash terraces on intermontane basins that formed from weathered granite, gneiss, and mica schist.
The Cososa series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in outwash derived from granite, gneiss, and mica schist. Cososa soils are on outwash plains, outwash fans, and outwash terraces on an intermontane basin. Slopes range from 0 to 9 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 6 to 8 inches and the mean annual temperature is about 43 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Haplocalcids
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are principally rangeland; however, in some areas they are used for sprinkler irrigation for irrigated crops such as, potatoes and small grain. Typical vegetation is mainly rabbitbrush, blue grama, prickly pear, and sand dropseed.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: South-central Colorado, High Intermountain Valley, MLRA 51, LRR E. The series is of moderate extent.
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MANUSCRIPTS/colorado/costi...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/COSOSA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The drive along the Al Qua'a-Um al Zamool road bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia is amazing. It is the best area to view the largest star dunes in this area of the Rub' al Khali. The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Landscape: Watauga soils are on gently sloping to very steep ridges and side slopes in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Slopes range from 2 to 50 percent. Elevation ranges from 1,400 to 4,000 feet. They formed in residuum that is affected by soil creep in the upper part, and are weathered from high-grade metamorphic rocks that are high in mica content such as mica gneiss and mica schist. (Photo from the Upper Mountain Research Station, NCSU)
In the summer of 2003, a team of soil scientists was assembled to study and evaluate how mica has historically been described in soil profile descriptions (official soil descriptions and field descriptions) and to determine if a need exists to refine quantification and description techniques as related to soil classification and making and interpreting soil maps. In addition to soil scientists, resource specialists (geologists, engineers, research specialists, and university staff) were asked to provide input, guidance, and historical perspective.
For more information about the Mica Research Project, visit:
[www.researchgate.net/publication/363254375_Report_of_the_...]
For more information about the Soil Survey Report of Ashe County, NC, visit:
archive.org/details/asheNC1985
The station is located in Ashe County: (cals.ncsu.edu/research/research-stations/upper-mountain-r...
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/W/WATAUGA.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
The Cades series (foreground) consists of very deep, well drained soils on old stream terraces and alluvial fans in the lower coves in the Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130B). They formed in alluvium derived from materials weathered from metasedimentary rocks such as phylite and metasandstone. Slope ranges from 2 to 8 percent.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPE LOCATION: Blount County, Tennessee; Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Cades Cove; 2000 feet west of the the entry gate of the Cades Cove Loop Road, 400 feet north of road in pasture field; USGS Cades Cove topographic quadrangle; latitude 35 degrees, 36 minutes, 26.49 seconds, North; longitude 83 degrees, 47 minutes, 5.53 seconds, West, NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock is greater than 72 inches. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to strongly acid. Rock fragments range from 0 to 25 percent above the lithologic discontinuity and 35 to greater than 80 percent below the discontinuity. The depth to the lithologic discontinuity ranges from 24 to 48 inches. Average rock fragment content in the particle-size control section is less than 35 percent. They range from channers to flagstones with size increasing with depth.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of this soil is cleared and used as pasture and hayland. Originally, all areas of this soil were forested.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern Blue Ridge (MLRA 130B) in Tennessee and North Carolina. This series is of small extent.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2007
archive.org/details/GreatSmokeyMountainsNP2009/mode/2up
For a detailed description of CADES soil and other pertinent information, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/sde/?series=cades#osd
SOIL TAXONOMY
For additional information about soil classification using Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition, 2022, visit:
[www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/Keys-to-Soi...]
Most of the UAE's cultivated land is taken up by date palms, which in the early 1990s numbered about 4 million. They are cultivated in the arc of small oases that constitute the Al Liwa Oasis. Both federal and emirate governments provide incentives to farmers. For example, the government offers a 50 percent subsidy on fertilizers, seeds, and pesticides. It also provides loans for machinery and technical assistance. The emirates have forty-one agricultural extension units as well as several experimental farms and agricultural research stations. The number of farmers rose from about 4,000 in the early 1970s to 18,265 in 1988.
The actual date tree population in UAE is about 40 millions of which 8.5 in AL-AIN region. The gene pool is large and composes about 120 date varieties. New introductions from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman included Khallas, AbouMaan, Hallawi, Khissab, Khenezi, Nabut Saif, Jabiri, Hillali, Lulu, Chichi, Khadraoui, Sakii, Sultana and Barhi varieties.
The Red Palm Weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olive is considered a major pest of the date palm in the Middle East where it causes severe damage.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
Less than one-fourth of the republic’s area is cultivated. Along with the decrease in farm population, the proportion of national income derived from agriculture has decreased to a fraction of what it was in the early 1950s. Improvements in farm productivity were long hampered because fields typically are divided into tiny plots that are cultivated largely by manual labor and animal power. In addition, the decrease and aging of the rural population has caused a serious farm-labor shortage. However, more recently productivity has been improving as greater emphasis has been given to mechanization, specialization, and commercialization.
MPRC: Multi-Purpose Range Complex, also known as Rodriguez Range, near Pocheon, South Korea. MPRC range supports units of the 2nd Infantry Division for helicopter, Bradley Fighting Vehicle, M1 Abrams tank, artillery, mortor, and close air support training.
www.army.mil/article/130555/Rotational_units_get_first_ta...
Depth to a root limiting or restrictive layer is important because it determines the amount of soil material favorable for plant rooting. A shallow soil limits the amount of water the soil can supply plants. A root limiting layer impeds the vertical movement of water, air, and growth of plant roots. If cracks are present, areas that roots can enter are 10 cm or more apart. Examples are: densic materials, hardpan, claypan, fragipan, caliche, or some compacted soils, bedrock and unstructured clay soils.
In this example, roots have been stopped or turned by the dense, compact, non-cemented marine sediment. Zones that roots can enter are more than 10 centimeters apart.
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
The camel calf was just born and is being introduced to its sibling. The Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius), is a large, even-toed ungulate with one hump on its back. The dromedary is the smallest of the three species of camel; adult males stand 1.8–2 m (5.9–6.6 ft) at the shoulder, while females are 1.7–1.9 m (5.6–6.2 ft) tall. Males typically weigh between 400 and 600 kg (880 and 1,320 lb), and females weigh between 300 and 540 kg (660 and 1,190 lb). The species' distinctive features include its long, curved neck, narrow chest, a single hump (compared with two on the Bactrian camel and wild Bactrian camel), and long hairs on the throat, shoulders and hump. The coat is generally a shade of brown. The hump, 20 cm (7.9 in) tall or more, is made of fat bound together by fibrous tissue.
Dromedaries are mainly active during daylight hours. They form herds of about 20 individuals, which are led by a dominant male. This camel feeds on foliage and desert vegetation; several adaptations, such as the ability to tolerate losing more than 30% of its total water content, allow it to thrive in its desert habitat. Mating occurs annually and peaks in the rainy season; females bear a single calf after a gestation of 15 months.
The dromedary has not occurred naturally in the wild for nearly 2,000 years. It was probably first domesticated in Somalia or the Arabian Peninsula about 4,000 years ago. In the wild, the dromedary inhabited arid regions, including the Sahara Desert. The domesticated dromedary is generally found in the semi-arid to arid regions of the Old World, mainly in Africa, and a significant feral population occurs in Australia. Products of the dromedary, including its meat and milk, support several north Arabian tribes; it is also commonly used for riding and as a beast of burden.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Brazil is the world’s top producer and exporter of sugarcane. It supplies 50% of the world’s sugar, producing 654.8m tons of sugarcane, 41.25m tons of processed sugar and 29.7bn liters of ethanol annually. But the proportion of Brazilian land that is dedicated to sugarcane production is just 1% (8.66m ha) of the country’s total land area.
Sugar and ethanol manufacturing are key to the Brazilian economy. Sugarcane production in Brazil is a key sector from a social and developmental perspective. Around 40% of the sugarcane processed by Brazilian mills are supplied by some 76,000 independent farmers, in turn supporting hundreds of thousands of people.
Brazilian policy also helps sugarcane act as a driver for social development. For example, one piece of legislation stipulates that sugar exports from Brazil to Europe be sourced in the northeast region of Brazil, one of the most developmentally challenged areas of the country.
The Cerrado was thought challenging for agriculture until researchers at Brazil’s agricultural and livestock research agency, Embrapa, discovered that it could be made fit for industrial crops by appropriate additions of phosphorus and lime. In the late 1990s, between 14 million and 16 million tons of lime were being poured on Brazilian fields each year. The quantity rose to 25 million tons in 2003 and 2004, equalling around five tons of lime per hectare. This manipulation of the soil allowed for industrial agriculture to grow exponentially in the area.
Researchers also developed tropical varieties of soybeans, until then a temperate crop, and currently, Brazil is the world's main soyabeans exporter due to the boom in animal feed production caused by the global rise in meat demand. Today the Cerrado region provides more than 70% of the beef cattle production in the country, being also a major production center of grains, mainly soya, beans, maize and rice. Large extensions of the Cerrado are also used for the production of cellulose pulp for the paper industry, with the cultivation of several species of Eucalyptus and Pinus, but as a secondary activity. Coffee produced in the Cerrado is now a major export.
The region is dominated by Oxisols.
Histic Cryaquepts (a hydric soil) have a histic epipedon but otherwise are like Typic Cryaquepts. They tend to have ground water at a higher level than in the soils of the Typic subgroup, and shallow water stands for some time above the soil surface. Histic Cryaquepts are considered intergrades to Histosols. They are of small extent in the United States and occur mostly in southern Alaska and in the high mountains of the Northwestern States. Most of the Histic Cryaquepts support native vegetation. They support forest vegetation or watertolerant shrubs and grasses. Histic Cryaquepts are used mainly as forest and wildlife habitat.
Cryaquepts are the cold Aquepts. They are of moderate extent in the high mountains and subarctic regions of North America and Eurasia. They typically have an ochric or histic epipedon over a cambic horizon. Cryaquepts are on flood plains, in depressional areas, and on plains. Most have grayish subsoils, and some are stratified. The major areas of the Cryaquepts in the United States are on the outwash plains and flood plains of Alaska. Cryaquepts formed mostly in late-Pleistocene or recent sediments south of the continuous permafrost zone. Most support mixed forest, shrub, or grassy vegetation. Many are nearly level, but some in areas of high precipitation have strong slopes. Because Cryaquepts are both cold and wet, they have low potential for cropping.
The histic epipedon is a layer of organic soil that is naturally saturated with water. It consists of organic soil material (peat or muck) if the soil has not been plowed. If the soil has been plowed, the epipedon normally has a high content of organic matter that results from mixing organic soil material with some mineral material.
It is thick (20- to 60-cm, or 8- to 24-inch) and is saturated with water at some period of the year (unless the soil is artificially drained) and that is at or near the surface of a mineral soil.
Hydric soils are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part (Federal Register, 1994). Most hydric soils exhibit characteristic morphologies that result from repeated periods of saturation or inundation that last more than a few days.
To download the latest version of "Field Indicators of Hydric Soils" and additional technical references, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/ref/?cid=s...
Along the floodplain:
Torrifluvents are along the narrow floodplain. These the Fluvents of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Most of them have a high pH value and are calcareous, and a few are somewhat salty. The soils are subject to flooding, but most are not flooded frequently or for long periods. The larger areas that have a favorable topography and are close to a source of water commonly are irrigated. The natural vegetation on the Torrifluvents in the United States consisted mostly of grasses, xerophytic shrubs, and cacti, but in some parts of the world the only vegetation on the soils has been irrigated crops because the sediments accumulated while the soils were being cultivated.
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Along the lower sideslopes:
Lithic Torriorthents-Typic Torriorthents-Rock outcrop association, steep
Lithic Torriorthents have a lithic contact that is within 50 cm of the surface and commonly is at a depth of less than 25 cm. They have a low moisture-storage capacity, and they occur mostly in association with soils of other orders or subgroups that have more moisture available to plants. Lithic Torriorthents are of moderate extent in the United States. The less sloping areas are used mostly for winter or spring grazing.
Torriorthents are the dry Orthents of cool to hot, arid regions. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are on moderate to very steep slopes. A few are on gentle slopes. Many of the gently sloping soils are on rock pediments, are very shallow, have a sandy-skeletal particle-size class, or are salty. Others are on fans where sediments are recent but have little organic carbon. The vegetation on Torriorthents commonly is sparse and consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs and ephemeral grasses and forbs. The vegetation on a few of the soils is saltgrass. The less sloping areas are used mostly for winter or spring grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
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Along the upper sideslopes:
Rock outcrop-Moenkopie association, steep--
Rock outcrop are miscellaneous areas that have little or no identifiable soil and thus supports little or no vegetation without major reclamation. They are exposures of bare bedrock. If needed, map units can be named according to the kind of rock, e.g., “Rock outcrop, limestone.”
The Moenkopie series consists of very shallow and shallow, well drained soils that formed in materials from sandstone and shale. Moenkopie soils are on mesas, plateaus, hills, and structural benches. Slopes are 0 to 30 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 9 inches. Mean annual air temperature is about 52 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, mesic Lithic Torriorthents
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for livestock grazing and wildlife habitat. Vegetation is blue grama, galleta, alkali sacaton, threeawn, fourwing saltbush, snakeweed, and sand dropseed, and juniper, algerita, cliffrose, and widely spaced pinyon pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern Arizona and southern Utah. The series is of large extent, more than 500,000 acres.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MOENKOPIE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#moenkopie
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On the ridges:
Deleco-Monue association, sloping--
The Deleco series consists of shallow, well drained soils that formed in mixed alluvium and colluvium from sedimentary rocks. Deleco soils are on terraces and fans. Slopes are 2 to 55 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 8 inches and the mean annual air temperature is about 55 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, carbonatic, mesic, shallow Typic Petrocalcids
USE AND VEGETATION: These soils are used for rangeland. The vegetation is black brush, Russian thistle, alpine muhly, and Indian ricegrass.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah and probably northern Arizona. This series is moderately extensive.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/D/DELECO.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#deleco
The Monue series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately rapidly permeable soils on stream terraces, fan terraces, and eolian deposits on structural benches. Monue soils are formed in alluvium and eolian materials from sandstone. Slopes are 1 to 15 percent. The average annual precipitation is about 7 inches (178 mm) and the mean annual air temperature is about 54 degrees F (12 degrees C).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Haplocambids
USE AND VEGETATION: Monue soils are used for livestock grazing. Vegetation is galleta grass, Indian ricegrass, spike dropseed, winterfat, and sand dropseed.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. MLRA 35; LRR-D. Monue soils are moderately extensive.
For a detailed soil description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/M/MONUE.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit:
casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/see/#monue
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For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
Walking back to my vehicle from taking the following photo... I thought it was a good shot of the background. The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
Foreground:
A Typic Torripsamment, petrogypsic from the interior of the UAE.
Torripsamments are the cool to hot Psamments of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Many of these soils are on stable surfaces, some are on dunes, some are stabilized, and some are moving. Torripsamments consist of quartz, mixed sands, volcanic glass, or even gypsum and may have any color. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are nearly level to steep. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs.
This pedon has a petrogypsic horizon at a depth of 100 to 200 cm and is identified as a "phase" in classification. The underlying petrogypsic layer aids this soil in retaining moisture, hence the increase in vegetation density as compared to the Typic Torripsamments (Midground).
In the UAE soil classification system, phases of soil taxa have been developed for those mineral soils that have soil properties or characteristics that occur at a deeper depth than currently identified for an established taxonomic subgroup or soil properties that effect interpretations not currently recognized at the subgroup level. The phases which have been identified in the UAE include: anhydritic, aquic, calcic, gypsic, lithic, petrocalcic, petrogypsic, salic, salidic, shelly, and sodic.
Midground:
The soils are dominantly Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs. Many of these soils support more vegetation than other soils with an aridic moisture regime, presumably because they lose less water as runoff. Some of the soils on dunes support a few ephemeral plants or have a partial cover of xerophytic and ephemeral plants. The shifting dunes may be devoid of plants in normal years. Most of the deposits are of late-Pleistocene or younger age. These soils are used mainly for grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
Background:
Rock Outcrop--Officially called Jebel Maleihah, this large outcrop is more widely known as Fossil Rock, after abundance of marine fossils that can be found on its slopes. This area is rich with the fossils of shells and small sea creatures that were on the ocean floor millions of years ago when water covered much of Arabia. These were created when limestone formed around their shells to make a mould, which then solidified to leave a perfect imprint.
Mleiha, also Mileiha or Malaihah, is a town in the Emirate of Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates with a population of 4,768, located some 2 km south of the inland Sharjah town of Dhaid.
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
A representative soil profile of a very-fine, kaolinitic, isothermic Typic Eutrustox from Brazil. (Photo and comments courtesy of Stan Buol, NCSU.)
Contrary to common characterizations all Oxisols are not acid and infertile. This profile, photographed in the western part of Minas Gerais state, Brazil and fully studied by Dr. Waldemar Moura (Moura and Buol. 1972. Studies of a Latosol Roxo (Eutrutox) in Brazil. Experientie 13:201-247) is an example of Oxisols with a high base saturation and formed in sediments derived from basalt and other basic rock.
These soils usually supported seasonally deciduous forest vegetation. Early European farmers found that crops could be grown on these soils and have largely removed all traces of the forest and have cultivate such soils for many years.
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Eutrustox are the Ustox with high base saturation throughout the profile. They do not have a sombric horizon within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface. They have, in all subhorizons of an oxic or kandic horizon within 150 cm of the mineral soil surface, an apparent ECEC of 1.50 cmol(+) per kg clay or more or a pH value (1N KCl) of less than 5.0. These soils are well known by local farmers because of their relatively high natural fertility. Commonly, they supported natural forests while the surrounding areas of like rainfall but low base status supported savannas. Currently, forest vegetation is rare because the forests have been completely cut by native farmers. Why these Ustox have high saturation throughout their profile is not known, but they tend to occur over or near basic rocks, such as limestone and basalt.
Ustox are the Oxisols that have an ustic moisture regime. Because of natural rainfall, they are moist in normal years for at least 90 days (a period that usually is long enough for one rain-fed crop) but not for more than 270 days. Crops are not grown continuously because there is inadequate moisture for at least 90 days in normal years. Ustox may be the most extensive suborder, occurring over a large portion of the interior of South America and in extensive areas of Africa. A few Ustox are in areas of the xeric soil moisture regime, for example, in Australia. The range of natural rainfall within the Ustox provides that two crops can be grown on some Ustox but only one crop can be grown on others unless supplemental irrigation is available.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
Soils of south-west Poland (the Lower Silesia region and the Sudetes Mountains) by Prof. Cezary Kabała. Soil classification by the World Reference Base (WRB) is provided in the lower right corner of each profile.
For more information about soil classification by the WRB, visit;
www.fao.org/3/i3794en/I3794en.pdf
For more information about Dr. Kabala and his research, visit;
www.researchgate.net/profile/Cezary-Kabala
Lower Silesia is the northwestern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia in the south-west Poland.
The landscape of the Lower Silesia changes from lowland to mountains as from the north to the south. Main two large geographical regions are therefore distinguished: the Silesian Lowlands and the Sudety (Sudetes) Mountains.
The Silesian and Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands are separated by the valley of river Kaczawa, and from the Sudetes by a steep morphological edge located along the Sudetes Marginal Fault, extended from Bolesławiec (the northwest) to Złoty Stok (the southeast). The southern part of the Lowland includes the Sudetes Foreland, consisting of quite low Wzgórza Strzegomskie (Strzegom Hills, 232 m), group of Ślęża (Mount Ślęża, 718 m), and Wzgórza Niemczańsko-Strzelińskie (Niemcza-Strzelin Hills, 392 m).
In a geological sense, the Sudetes Foreland is a part of the Sudetes Mountains and was created as a result of tectonic movements which separated one crystalline massif into two parts: a mountain uplifted part and a tectonic foreland (lower) part. The foreland remained a not very high plain with a few elevations, thus its morphology is similar rather to the Silesian Lowland than to the Sudetes. The eastern part of Silesian Lowlands consists of the wide plains, located along banks of the Oder River. From the north, the lowlands are delimited by the Wał Trzebnicki, consisting of chain of hills that are 200 km long and over 150 m high.
For more information about these soils, visit;
Wadi Bih, is a river wadi that crosses the North-Western Hajar Mountains from the United Arab Emirates, and traversing Oman before returning to the UAE. From the West to the East, it originates in Ras Al Khaimah on the Gulf, before crossing the Omani exclave at the tip of the Musandam Peninsula, past the village of Zighi and into Fujairah at Dibba Al-Hisn, on the Gulf of Oman. The wadi is a popular location for birdwatchers.
The wadis are areas of active fluvial processes that occur during rare storms. The dominant soils are Torriorthents.
They are also places where dams have been built to control the movement of water and sediment. These extend into the mountain range as major wadi systems (e.g., Wadi Dibba and Wadi Ham on the eastern side). Wadi Ash Shus, Wadi Bih, and Wadi Haqil are good examples on the west. At the foot of the alluvial fans in the southern part of the study area two wadis extend from the alluvial plains into the dunes to the west.
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
agrifs.ir/sites/default/files/United%20Arab%20Emirates%20...
A Typic Torripsamment from the interior of the UAE.
Torripsamments are the cool to hot Psamments of arid climates. They have an aridic (or torric) moisture regime and a temperature regime warmer than cryic. Many of these soils are on stable surfaces, some are on dunes, some are stabilized, and some are moving. Torripsamments consist of quartz, mixed sands, volcanic glass, or even gypsum and may have any color. Generally, they are neutral or calcareous and are nearly level to steep. The vegetation consists mostly of xerophytic shrubs, grasses, and forbs.
Many of these soils support more vegetation than other soils with an aridic moisture regime, presumably because they lose less water as runoff. Some of the soils on dunes support a few ephemeral plants or have a partial cover of xerophytic and ephemeral plants. The shifting dunes may be devoid of plants in normal years. Most of the deposits are of late-Pleistocene or younger age. These soils are used mainly for grazing. They are extensive in the Western United States.
Psamments are the sandy Entisols. They are sandy in all layers within the particle-size control section. Some formed in poorly graded (well sorted) sands on shifting or stabilized sand dunes, in cover sands, or in sandy parent materials that were sorted in an earlier geologic cycle. Some formed in sands that were sorted by water and are on outwash plains, lake plains, natural levees, or beaches. A few Psamments formed in material weathered from sandstone or granitic bedrock. Psamments occur under any climate, but they cannot have permafrost within 100 cm of the soil surface. They can have any vegetation and are on surfaces of virtually any age from recent historic to Pliocene or older. The Psamments on old stable surfaces commonly consist of quartz sand. Ground water typically is deeper than 50 cm and commonly is much deeper.
Psamments have a relatively low water-holding capacity. Those that are bare and become dry are subject to soil blowing and drifting and cannot easily support wheeled vehicles. Because very gravelly sands do not have the two qualities just described, they are excluded from Psamments and are grouped with Orthents. Thus, not all Entisols that have a sandy texture are Psamments.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
sites.google.com/site/dinpuithai/Home
For more information about soil classification using the UAE Keys to Soil Taxonomy, visit:
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Plinthite is a material that is made up of iron oxides and forms deep in soils under certain specific conditions. Petroplinthite forms from the hardening of continuous phase plinthite. In many parts of the world, petroplinthite is mined, cut into shape, and used as building blocks. It has not been recognized in the US.
In progression are:
Plinthite--non-cemented to moderately cemented
Petroplinthite--nodular and strongly cemented or very strongly cemented
Litho-plinthite--vesicular (tubular) strongly cemented or very strongly cemented (obsolete)
Ironstone--indurated
The soil layer illustrated in this photo was cemented (had hardened upon exposure), but the degree of cementation was less than strongly cemented.
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
A representative soil profile of an Solonetz from the Hungarian Soil Classification System (HSCS) by Prof. Blaskó Lajos (2008).
For more information about these soils, visit:
regi.tankonyvtar.hu/hu/tartalom/tamop425/0032_talajtan/ch...
SOLONETZ: Soil with subsurface horizon of clay accumulation and high sodium content (from the Russian, sol, meaning salt and etz, meaning strongly expressed).Strongly alkaline soil with a subsurface horizon of clay minerals, strong columnar structure and high proportion of adsorbed sodium and/or magnesium ions. Solonetz are normally associated with flat lands in a climate with hot, dry summers or with former coastal deposits that contain a high proportion of salt. Solonetz soil occurs mainly in the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Internationally, Solonetz are referred to as alkali soil and sodic soil, Sols sodiques à horizon B et Solonetz solodisés (France), Natrustalfs, Natrustolls, Natrixeralfs, Natrargids or Nadurargids (Soil Taxonomy). They cover less than 1 percent of Europe.
The current Hungarian Soil Classification System (HSCS) was developed in the 1960s, based on the genetic principles of Dokuchaev. The central unit is the soil type grouping soils that were believed to have developed under similar soil forming factors and processes. The major soil types are the highest category which groups soils based on climatic, geographical and genetic bases. Subtypes and varieties are distinguished according to the assumed dominance of soil forming processes and observable/measurable morphogenetic properties.
A soil profile of an Anthroportic Udorthent and landscape from the Guangdong Province of China near a burial site.
The soil over time had been disturbed by burial and removal. Bodies are buried in shallow graves and allowed to decompose. After about a year the remaining bones are moved to a pot for keeping. This process was originally done because the residents were not local and stored their family members so they could be eventually moved back home hundreds of miles away. This way of caring for the dead has been ongoing for over 500 years---hope burns eternal!
Anthroportic Udorthents are the Udorthents that have 50 cm or more of human-transported material.
Human-transported material (HTM) is parent material for soil that has been moved horizontally onto a pedon from a source area outside of that pedon by purposeful human activity, usually with the aid of machinery or hand tools. This pedon has been covered with soil material from an adjacent area.
This material often contains a lithologic discontinuity or a buried horizon just below an individual deposit. Note the buried soil and contrasting materials starting at the 55 centimeter depth.
Human-transported material may be composed of either organic or mineral soil material and may contain detached pieces of diagnostic horizons which are derived from excavated soils. It may also contain artifacts (e.g., asphalt) that are not used as agricultural amendments (e.g., biosolids) or are litter discarded by humans (e.g., aluminum cans).
Human-transported material has evidence that it did not originate from the same pedon which it overlies. In some soils, irregular distribution with depth or in proximity away from an anthropogenic landform, feature, or constructed object (e.g., a road or building) of modern products (e.g., radioactive fallout, deicers, or lead-based paint) may mark separate depositions of human-transported materials or mark the boundary within situ soil material below or beside the human-transported material. In other soils, a discontinuity exists between the human-transported material and the parent material (e.g., a 2C horizon) or root-limiting layer (e.g., a 2R layer) beneath it.
Multiple forms of evidence may be required to identify human-transported material where combinations of human actions and natural processes interact. Examples of these combinations include human-transported material deposited by dredging adjacent to active beaches, human- or water-deposited litter on flood plains and beneath water bodies, and deposits from natural geologic events (e.g., airfall volcanic ash) mantling anthropogenic landforms and microfeatures. Therefore, it is often the preponderance of evidence, including published or historical evidence and onsite observations, that allows identification of human-transported material.
For more information about describing soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs142p2_052523...
For additional information about soil classification using Soil Taxonomy, visit:
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Its surface elevation varies from 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the southwest to around sea level in the northeast. The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft), interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is of a reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar. There are also brackish salt flats in some areas, such as the Umm al Samim area on the desert's eastern edge. Along the middle length of the desert there are a number of raised, hardened areas of calcium carbonate, gypsum, marl, or clay that were once the site of shallow lakes.
These lakes existed during periods from 6,000 to 5,000 years ago and 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. The lakes are thought to have formed as a result of "cataclysmic rainfall" similar to present-day monsoon rains and most probably lasted for only a few years. Evidence suggests that the lakes were home to a variety of flora and fauna. Fossil remains indicate the presence of several animal species, such as hippopotamus, water buffalo, and long-horned cattle. The lakes also contained small snails, ostracods, and when conditions were suitable, freshwater clams. Deposits of calcium carbonate and opal phytoliths indicate the presence of plants and algae.
There is also evidence of human activity dating from 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, including chipped flint tools, but no actual human remains have been found. The region is classified as "hyper-arid", with typical annual rainfall of less than 3 centimetres (1.2 in). Daily maximum temperatures average at 47 °C (117 °F) and can reach as high as 51 °C (124 °F). Fauna includes arachnids (e.g. scorpions) and rodents, while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, the Rub' al Khali falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands. The Asiatic cheetahs, once widespread in Saudi Arabia, are regionally extinct from the desert.
Geologically, the Empty Quarter is one of the most oil-rich sites in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand dunes.[citation needed] Sheyba, at the northeastern edge of the Rub' al Khali, is a major light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter.
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Liwa Dunes area. This region lies in the southern part of the Emirate and to the north of the Rub al Khali at Liwa. It comprises medium to high, rolling to steep linear and transverse dune systems that, in some areas, have been partially overlain by more recent barchanoid dunes. Scattered small deflation plains and sabkha flats are prominent features in some areas.
A Typic Torripsamment. These areas are narrow sinuous dune ridges that form linear or roughly rectangular patterns around deflation plains and inland sabkha flats. The dunes have a relative relief of about 80m. Dune formations are variable due to multi-directional winds, and include barchanoid, transverse and star shapes. The star dunes are often higher than the surrounding dunes and form impressive and imposing features in the landscape. A white, gray or red surface veneer of fine to coarse sand and fine gravel occurs on the gentle slopes of the dunes adjacent to the sabkhas and deflation plains.
The land is used as low-density grazing. The map unit has sparse vegetation cover with Cyperus conglomeratus and Zygophyllum spp on the lower slopes of the dunes together with Calligonum comosum on the slopes and slip faces. The map unit forms part of the Cyperetum-Zygophylletum vegetation community.
The soils of this map unit are dominated by Typic Torripsamments, mixed, hyperthermic (85% AD158) in the high dunes. Other soils are Typic Petrogypsids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD123), Petrogypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD143) and Gypsic Haplosalids, sandy, mixed, hyperthermic (5% AD135) that are confined to the deflation flats.
For more information about soil classification in the UAE, visit:
vdocument.in/united-arab-emirates-keys-to-soil-taxonomy.h...
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
One small unit represents this region on the mainland of the Abu Dhabi Emirate at Jabal Az Zannah. As its name suggests it comprises a salt dome against which eolian sediments have accumulated.
This region lies in the north-western part of the Emirate near Ghayathi. It comprises eroded Quaternary and Miocene sediments often with a deflation regolith of fine gravels.
A plinthic soil contains a significant amount of plinthite. Plinthite (Gr. plinthos, brick) is an iron-rich, humus-poor mixture of clay with quartz and other highly weathered minerals. It commonly occurs as reddish redox concentrations in a layer that has a polygonal (irregular), platy (lenticular), or reticulate (blocky) pattern. Plinthite irreversibly hardens upon exposure to repeated wetting and drying, especially if exposed to heat from the sun. Other morphologically similar iron-rich materials that do not progressively harden upon repeated wetting and drying are not considered plinthite. The horizon in which plinthite occurs commonly has 2.5 percent (by mass) or more citrate dithionite extractable iron in the fine-earth fraction and a ratio between acid oxalate extractable Fe and citrate-dithionite extractable Fe of less than 0.10.
In soil science, the "C" horizon is the soil layer consisting more or less of weathered parent rock or deposited material that is little affected by pedogenesis (soil formation). If an overlying horizon contains a significant amount of clay, over time, the clay may be transported into and along vertical cracks or along channels within macropores creating clay coats or clay flows.
The dark red zone in the lower part of this profile is an example of the aquitard layer below a well developed plinthic B horizon of a coastal plain soil. This layer seasonally perches water facilitating plinthite formation. The horizon exhibits very weak very coarse blocky structure with very thick clay coating on internal seams or cracks. Clay coating is common in the very deep layers (3-4 meters or more below the soil surface) where pedogenesis is thought to be minimal or not present. The red area has a sandy loam to sandy clay loam texture, whereas the gray area has texture of clay loam or clay.
The gray tubes or channels throughout the aquitard layer are thought to be formed by biological activity at a time when the sediments were being deposited. In the current environment, they commonly contain coarse roots within elongated macropores. The macropores may be completed filled with soil material or they be open (areas that once contained live roots, but are currently void of roots due to decomposition), allowing for the transmission of air and water within the channel.
Because of the dark red color and dense characteristics, these layers are referred to by the local soil scientists as the "brick" layer.
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM
For additional information about soil classification using USDA-NRCS Soil Taxonomy, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/keys-...
or;
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/soil-...
Many areas of Crider soils have undulating to rolling karst topography. Commonly, the karst areas have inclusions of Nolin soils in the depressions.
www.soils4teachers.org/files/s4t/k12outreach/ky-state-soi...
For additional information about the survey area, visit:
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The Crider series consists of very deep, well drained, moderately permeable soils on uplands. They formed in a loess mantle and the underlying residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 0 to 30 percent. Crider soils are on nearly level to moderately steep uplands. The upper 20 to 45 inches of the solum formed in loess and the lower part formed in limestone residuum or old alluvium.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all of the soil is used for growing crops and pasture. The chief crops are corn, small grains, soybeans, tobacco, and hay; truck crops are grown in a few places. The original vegetation was mixed hardwood forest, chiefly of oaks, maple, hickory, elm, ash, and hackberry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Pennyroyal and the western Outer Bluegrass of Kentucky; the northern part of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, Illinois and possibly northeast Arkansas. The soil is of large extent, about 1,000,000 acres.
For a detailed description, visit:
soilseries.sc.egov.usda.gov/OSD_Docs/C/CRIDER.html
For acreage and geographic distribution, visit: