The team has been having a fantastic week, completing 11 practice pits around Grand Island, NE. A huge thank you to our contest hosts and our donors, who have made this amazing educational experience possible. We have seen soils on 3 major landscape components in this portion of Nebraska - Loess Uplands, Dunes, and Floodplains. One practice day has been dedicated to each of these landscape components, as the students have been learning about soil formation, land use, and hydrology!
After all of these amazing soils and landscapes, the Gophers are pumped up and fired up for contest day Thursday morning! We are at one with our soil texture triangles.
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| A beautiful landscape of dunes (left) and stream terraces (center and right) along the Platte River |
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| An Ustipsamment on a natural levee on a stream terrace near the Platte River |
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| A Haplustept formed in eolian sand on the backslope of a dune |
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| A floodplain sunset landscape |
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| An Ustipsamment formed in alluvium on a floodplain |
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| An upland depression in the Rainwater Basins near Clay Center, NE |
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| A smectitic Argiustoll formed in loess in an plan depression in the Rainwater Basins |
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| Wednesday Flannel Day for UMN Soil Judging! |
