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Preliminary Investigations of Heavy Mineral Criteria as an Aid in the Identification of Certain Soils in Oklahoma
Author(s) -
Buckhannan W. H.,
Ham W. E.
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1942.036159950006000c0009x
Subject(s) - geologist , citation , identification (biology) , library science , soil survey , surveyor , criticism , archaeology , geology , computer science , history , political science , soil water , law , geography , soil science , cartography , ecology , biology
HT^HIS paper presents, briefly, the results of some -Imineralogical studies of soils and their parent materials in central Oklahoma. Most of these studies included the petrographic examination and tabulation of heavy mineral suites obtained from parent materials of some of the dominant soils in this part of the state, and from the soils themselves. These data show that an application of petrographic studies is an obvious step toward a better understanding of certain conditions peculiar to the soil parent materials of central Oklahoma, and possibly toward a solution of some of the more obscure problems of soil genesis. Most of the samples examined were collected from areas within the portion of the state drained by the Canadian River, although several samples within the watersheds of several of the other rivers in central Oklahoma also were examined. In this section of Oklahoma, formations of the Paleozoic Era (Permian age) are exposed. Probably all this part of the state, except the higher points along the divides between the watersheds of these rivers, was formerly mantled with old alluvium of Pleistocene age, as is indicated by small or extensive remnants of this material on the high terraces. During subsequent dissection most of the Pleistocene alluvial materials were removed until nearly all that remains are extensive and. relatively thick deposits within 2 or 3 miles of the flood plains along the rivers, and most of these occupy comparatively low terrace-like positions. Elsewhere, remnants of old alluvium are in small and widely scattered areas, with seemingly no correlation to terrace position of physiographic significance. Nearer the divide, and at approximately the same elevation, the deposits of this old alluvium are, as a rule, thinner and in smaller areas. The soil surveyor, in the past, has relied on the character of the material and the landscape to identify old alluvium and to delineate the areas of soils developed from old alluvium (Fig. i). In some cases, observations of certain characteristics of the material and the physiography have lead to wrong deductions and have caused an alluvial character of the material and its terrace-like position to seem more apparent than real. As a means of checking