Albeluvic tonguing (WRB)

Albeluvic tonguing is one of the diagnostic properties used, in the WRB system, to discriminate some soils from others.

Description

The term "albeluvic tonguing" (from Latin albus, white, and eluere, to wash out) is connotative of penetrations of clay- and Fe-depleted material into an argic horizon. When peds are present, albeluvic tongues occur along ped surfaces.

Criteria

Albeluvic tongues :

• have the colour of an albic horizon

and :

• have greater depth than width, with the following horizontal dimensions:
  • 5 mm or more in clayey argic horizons; or
  • 10 mm or more in clay loam and silty argic horizons; or
  • 15 mm or more in coarser (silt loam, loam or sandy loam) argic horizons

and :

• occupy 10 percent or more of the volume in the first 10 cm of the argic horizon, measured on both vertical and horizontal sections and :
• have a particle-size distribution matching that of the coarser textured horizon overlying the argic horizon.

RSG in which albeluvic tonguing can be observed

• Albeluvisol

See also

• The FAO reference text, (2007 version)