[1] Spirit’s Mössbauer (MB) instrument determined the Fe mineralogy and oxidation state of 71 rocks and 43 soils during its exploration of the Gusev plains and the Columbia Hills (West Spur, Husband Hill, Haskin Ridge, northern Inner Basin, and Home Plate) on Mars. The plains are predominantly float rocks and soil derived from olivine basalts. Outcrops at West Spur and on Husband Hill have expe...

[1] Spirit’s Mössbauer (MB) instrument determined the Fe mineralogy and oxidation state of 71 rocks and 43 soils during its exploration of the Gusev plains and the Columbia Hills (West Spur, Husband Hill, Haskin Ridge, northern Inner Basin, and Home Plate) on Mars. The plains are predominantly float rocks and soil derived from olivine basalts. Outcrops at West Spur and on Husband Hill have expe...

The unsaturated zone (UZ) retains aqueous solutions against gravity by capillary forces. This suction state corresponds to a decreasing internal pressure of the water, which modifies its thermodynamic properties. Accordingly, the speciation of solutes and the solubility of solids and gases in such capillary solutions change. The volumetric capillary water content of the soil at high suction can...

As a part of a broader study of the surface formations in maritime Antarctica, a preliminary survey on the content of radionuclides has been carried out in soils of Byers Peninsula, located in the western end of Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands. Data on natural and artificial radionuclides are very scarce in Antarctica and the studied soil samples can be representative of the maritime ...

In this paper, a set of physical, geochemical and mineralogical indicators are proposed for the correlation of soil age. The parameters studied allowed the highlighting of trends in soil aging as well as the relating of these trends to specific soil forming processes. Soil aging was marked by a progressive increase in clay content and a decrease in silt/clay ratio, a slight reduction in the CEC...

Due to the large spatial variation of soil organic carbon (SOC) content, assessing the current state of SOC for large areas is costly and time consuming. Visible and Near Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Vis-NIR DRS) is a fast and cheap tool for measuring SOC based on empirical equations and spectral libraries. While the approach has been demonstrated to yield accurate predictions for...

this study was conducted to characterize the reactivity of carbonates in the surface horizons of 20 soils (entisols and aridisols) from central region of iran. the samples were analyzed for calcium carbonate equivalent (cce), active calcium carbonate equivalent (acce), non-active calcium carbonate equivalent (n.acce), carbonate mineralogy and surface area of carbonates (ssa) through n2 adsorpti...

The study of uranium-series (U-series) isotopes in soil and sediment materials has been proposed to quantify rates and timescales of soil production and sediment transport. Previous works have studied bulk soil or sediment material, which is a complex assemblage of primary and secondary minerals and organic compounds. However, the approach relies on the fractionation between U-series isotopes i...

Recent improvements in our understanding of the dynamics of soil carbon have shown that 20-40% of the approximately 1,500 Pg of C stored as organic matter in the upper meter of soils has turnover times of centuries or less. This fast-cycling organic matter is largely comprised of undecomposed plant material and hydrolyzable components associated with mineral surfaces. Turnover times of fast-cyc...

The relationship between STP (soil test P) and DRP (dissolved reactive P) in runoff has been shown to vary with soil type due to differences in soil properties. The purpose of this study was to determine if soil tests could indirectly take into account differences in soil properties and thus provide one relationship with STP and runoff DRP among a variety of soil types. Nine different soil type...