The team spent the first part of a bright and sunny day by describing three pits: Two Paleudalfs (a shoulder and a terrace) on the broad upland landscape of the Springfield Plateau, followed by an Argiduoll in a floodplain, all at Missouri State University's Southwest Research Center (thanks Tom!) just outside of Mt. Vernon, MO.
Several characteristics of these soils that were novel for our students are the large amount of coarse fragments in the cherty/dolomitic residuum, and the deep reds in some of the subsoil horizons. Ever used the 10R page? Our team has now! Ever scavenged the fine earth from between coarse fragments to get enough material to texture?
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| 10R soil material formed in dolomitic/cherty residuum under pedisediment. |
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| Andrea Williams, Teng Vang, Sondra Larson, and Nick Vetsch compare estimates of soil texture. |
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| A Paleudalf on a shoulder position |
Our team geologist, Amanda Wolff, immediately set to work with a rock hammer, patiently describing to her peers the difference between limestone and dolomite as well as their field characteristics and identification.
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A Paleudalf on a terrace
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Lastly, the team described something more familiar to our Minnesota tastes - an Argiduoll with a buried A horizon formed in alluvium on a floodplain - 10YR colors ;).
We left Mt. Vernon and made the final leg of our journey to Manhattan, KS. We ate dinner, bought groceries for the week, and had a team meeting before packing the vans for tomorrow's first practice pits. So we have reached the end of the beginning. We are at one with our textural triangles.
