Soil Glossary
This list is based on the standard book Soil Taxonomy.
- Alfisols:
- soils with a subsurface zone of silicate clay accumulation and greater than 35% base saturation
- Andisols:
- soils formed in volcanic ash
- Aridisols:
- CaCO3-containing soils of arid environments with subsurface horizon development
- Entisols:
- soils with little or no morphological development
- Gelisols:
- soils with permafrost within two meters of the surface
- Histosols:
- organic soils
- Inceptisols:
- soils with weakly developed subsurface horizons
- Mollisols:
- grassland soils with high base status
- Oxisols:
- intensely weathered soils of tropical and subtropical environments
- Spodosols:
- acid soils with a subsurface accumulation of metal-humus complexes
- Ultisols:
- soils with a subsurface zone of silicate clay accumulation and less than 35% base saturation
- Vertisols:
- clayey soils with high shrink/swell capacity
This list is based on the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World.
- Acrisols:
- highly weathered soils with argillic horizons
- Androsols:
- volcanic ash with dark surfaces
- Arenosols:
- sandy soils; soils formed from sand
- Cambisols:
- light colour, structure, or consistency change caused by weathering
- Chernozems:
- black surface, high humus under prairie vegetation
- Ferralsols:
- sesquioxide rich clay
- Fluvisols:
- water-deposited soils with little alteration
- Gleysols:
- mottled or reduced horizons because of wetness
- Greyzems:
- dark surface, bleached A2, and textural B
- Histosols:
- organic soils
- Kastanozems:
- chestnut surface colour, steppe vegetation
- Lithosols:
- shallow soils over hard rock
- Luvisols:
- medium to high base status soils with argillic horizons
- Nitosols:
- low CEC clay in argillic horizons
- Phaeozems:
- dark surface, more leached than Kastanozems or Chernozems
- Planosols:
- abrupt A-B horizon contact
- Podzols:
- light-coloured eluvial horizon and subsoil accumulation of iron, aluminum, and humus
- Podzoluvisols:
- leached horizons tonguing into argillic B horizons
- Rankers:
- thin soil over silaceous material
- Regisols:
- thin soil over unconsolidated material
- Rendzinas:
- shallow soil over limestone
- Solonchaks:
- soluble salt accumulation
- Solonetz:
- high sodium content
- Vertisols:
- self-mulching, inverting soils, rich in montmorillonitis clay
- Xerosols:
- dry soils of semiarid regions
- Yermosols:
- desert soils
