surficial geology

The use of soil surveys to aid in geologic mapping with an emphasis on the Eastern and Midwestern United States

After soil science became established as a scientific discipline, there has been a continued interplay between geologists and soil scientists, both fields benefiting from advancements made by the other. There is strong agreement between preliminary geology maps created from soil maps and traditional geology maps. Despite the results obtained when using soil maps to create surficial geology maps, there is a need for more quantitative studies to assess the degree of compliment between soil-based maps and traditional geology maps, expansion of the technique into a wider range of geologic and climatic environments, and more research in locations that use classification systems other than Soil Taxonomy. Read More

1 September 2015

Comparison of surficial geology maps based on soil survey and in depth geological survey

Despite the widespread availability of relatively detailed soil maps in the USA, few areas have a surficial geology map published with as much spatial detail. This apparent gap between disciplines calls to question the accuracy of soil maps to represent the spatial distribution of surficial geologic materials. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to test the agreement between maps from these two sources. Read More

10 March 2015

Colluvium vs Alluvium

UPDATE: The tremendous response to this blog post led to an international and interdisciplinary survey on how these terms are/should be defined. The results of… Read More

23 February 2015

Using soil surveys to map Quaternary parent materials and landforms

The integration of soil survey maps with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allows for an almost infinite level of collaboration across disciplines that use information related to soil databases. This study created a Quaternary geologic map by categorizing soil descriptions into a geologic context and joining the attributes with the Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database in ArcGIS®. The resulting map communicates many of the spatial intricacies of the Des Moines Lobe landform with 15 map units based on geologic units. Read More

9 March 2008