Vertisol

From Wicri Urban Soils

A vertisol (VR) can be defined through :

and :

  • after the upper 20 cm have been mixed, 30 percent or more clay in all horizons to a depth of 100 cm or more, or to a contrasting layer (lithic or paralithic contact, petrocalcic, petroduric or petrogypsic horizons, sedimentary discontinuity, etc.) between 50 and 100 cm

and :

  • cracks[1] which open and close periodically

Possible qualifiers

For each RSG, there are some possible prefix and suffix qualifiers :

Prefix qualifiers

 
Suffix qualifiers
 
 

Source

Notes

  1. A crack is a separation between gross polyhedrons. If the surface is strongly self-mulching, i.e. a mass of granules ("grumic"), or if the soil is cultivated while cracks are open, the cracks may be filled mainly by granular materials from the soil surface but they are open in the sense that the polyhedrons are separated. A crack is regarded as open if it controls the infiltration and percolation of water in dry, clayey soil (Soil Survey Staff, 1996). If the soil is irrigated the upper 50 cm has a coefficient of linear extensibility (COLE) of 0.06 or more throughout

fr:Vertisol