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ix
x List of Contributors
Maja J. Kooistra International Soil Reference and Information Centre and Kooistra
Micromorphological Services, Rhenen, The Netherlands (Retired)
Carlos E.G.R. Schaefer Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Felipe N.B. Simas Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Henk van Steijn University of Utrecht, Wijk bij Duurstede, The Netherlands
(Retired)
Michael J. Vepraskas North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, United States
During his more than 30 years of teaching experience in the field of soil micromorphology,
the senior Editor was confronted with an always returning question from students and
alumni: where to find information on the interpretation of micromorphological data. Apart
from a few reviews, often quite outdated by now, this information is dispersed in numerous
research papers in various national and international journals and congress proceedings. To
provide students and researchers with an up-to-date and comprehensive tool, he took the
initiative at the end of his career to prepare, with two colleagues, a textbook on the signifi-
cance of micromorphological features, with the help of international specialists.
The relationship between micromorphological characteristics and genesis, classification
or physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of soils and regoliths is a vast and complex
issue, requiring much further systematic research. The Editors therefore consider this book as
a first approximation towards an inventory of micromorphological knowledge, and they are
aware that it is surely not as complete as it could be. They hope that the gaps in our
knowledge and understanding of the fabric of soils and regoliths, as pointed out in the various
chapters of the book, will stimulate young researchers to contribute to further progress in the
field of micromorphology.
Since the early days of micromorphology, different descriptive systems and terminol-
ogies have been used. To avoid terminology-related confusion, authors were asked to use the
concepts and terminology proposed by Bullock et al. (1985) and Stoops (2003), and where
necessary to ‘translate’ other terms to this system.
An effort was made to cover the different aspects of micromorphological interpretation,
except in the field of quantitative micromorphology, also known as micromorphometry. A
general overview of the use of micromorphology and its interpretation is presented in the first
two chapters, the second serving as an open key to the next chapters. The approach of the last
two chapters, dealing with archaeology and palaeosoils is different. These chapters do not
systematically treat observed features, but rather explain general ideas, illustrated with many
case studies.
The amount of work done by the authors should not be underestimated. For some
topics, little published information is available (e.g., saprolite fabric). For others the amount
of literature data is overwhelming (e.g., clay illuviation), often scattered over publications
coming from various disciplines such as soil science, geology and engineering (e.g., car-
bonates, laterites). Moreover, the available information is often contradictory, making it
necessary to be critical while reviewing published interpretations.
It would not have been possible to reach the high scientific standard of the various
chapters without the greatly appreciated assistance of many dedicated referees. All manu-
scripts were reviewed by at least two specialists, whose constructive and critical comments
have contributed to the final quality of this book. The Editors thank all referees for their
excellent work. The following persons have assisted the Editors by reviewing one or more
manuscripts: P. Adderley, J. Alexandre, A.M. Alonso Zarza, J. Arocena, I.E. Brochier, B. Buck,
P. Bullock (y), A. Bustillo-Revuelta, P. Buurman, M. Canti, J. Catt, D. Davidson, S. Driese,
D. Dubroeucq, M.H. Farpoor, N. Fedoroff, E.A. FitzPatrick, D. Gabriels, R. Joeckel, A. Jongmans,
xiii
xiv Preface to the First Edition
Georges Stoops
Vera Marcelino
Florias Mees
References
Bullock, P., Fedoroff, N., Jongerius, A., Stoops, G., Tursina, T. & Babel, U., 1985. Handbook for Soil Thin
Section Description. Waine Research Publications, Wolverhampton, 152 p.
Stoops, G., 2003. Guidelines for Analysis and Description of Soil and Regolith Thin Sections. Soil Science
Society of America, Madison, 184 p.
Preface to the Second Edition
Georges Stoops
Vera Marcelino
Florias Mees
xv
List of Abbreviations
xvii
Chapter 1
Micromorphology as a Tool in Soil
and Regolith Studies
Georges Stoops
GHENT UNIVERSITY, GHENT, B ELGIUM
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Soil and Regolith Genesis ................................................................................................................ 5
3. Soil and Regolith Classification ....................................................................................................... 6
4. Palaeopedology, Quaternary Geology and Archaeology ............................................................ 7
5. Soil Management and Other Applications .................................................................................... 8
6. Correlations Between Micromorphology and Physical Data ....................................................... 9
7. Monitoring Experimental Work and Analyses .............................................................................. 9
8. Evolutions in Analytical Methods ................................................................................................. 10
9. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................... 11
References............................................................................................................................................. 11
1. Introduction
The aim of micropedology is to contribute to solving problems related to the genesis,
classification and management of soils, including soil characterisation in palae-
opedology and archaeology. The interpretation of features observed in thin sections is
the most important part of this type of research, based on an objective detailed analysis
and description.
Attempts to understand soil genesis by the study of thin sections were already made
in the beginning of the 20th century by Delage and Lagatu (1904), Lacroix (1913),
Agafonoff (1929, 1935/1936, 1936) and Allen (1930), but it was only after the publication
of the book Micropedology (Kubiëna, 1938) that a real start was made. The use of
micromorphology was promoted further by Kubiëna’s later books on soil genesis and
classification (Kubiëna, 1948, 1953; see also Stoops, 2009a). New methodologies to
prepare large thin sections with cold-setting resins (Borchert, 1961; Altemüller, 1962;
Jongerius & Heintzberger, 1962) allowed the study of microstructures and other relatively
large features. In the course of the following years, much progress was made in methods
of thin section description (Brewer, 1964; FitzPatrick, 1984, 1993; Bullock et al., 1985;
Stoops, 2003) and quantitative analyses (Kubiëna, 1967; Jongerius, 1974; Mermut &
Norton, 1992; Terribile et al., 1997; see also Stoops, 2009b). The interpretation of
micromorphological features of various soil and regolith materials advanced as well, but
no general overview of these achievements had been compiled before publication of the
first edition of this book.
The evolution of micromorphological publications, from 1900 until 2000, was ana-
lysed by Stoops (2014) based on bibliometric data. In the following paragraphs, an up-
date until 2015, using the same methodology as described in the original paper and
completed with many overlooked references, is presented. After publication of the book
by Kubiëna (1938), the number of publications continuously increased, especially since
1956, reaching a maximum in the period 1986-1990 (Fig. 1) and decreasing thereafter
slightly for various reasons (Stoops, 2014).
Besides changes in the number of micromorphological publications, also the fields of
research that they represent strongly varied since its inception (Fig. 2). Before 1940,
publications on methodology and concepts were dominant, followed by soil genesis. Soil
genesis became the main application after 1940, reaching a maximum in the period
1956-1960 (80%) and still accounting for more than 50% until 1996-2005. During and
after this period, a gradual increase in the number of publications on archaeological
2011-2015
2006-2010
2001-2005
1996-2000
1991-1995
1986-1990
1981-1985
1976-1980
1971-1975
1966-1970
1961-1965
1956-1960
1951-1955
1941-1950
1900-1940
FIGURE 1 Total number of papers on soil micromorphology, published between 1900 and 2015. Based on an
extended and updated version of the dataset compiled by Stoops (2014).
Chapter 1 Micromorphology as a Tool in Soil and Regolith Studies 3
40 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 05 10 15
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20
00- 1- 1- 6- 1- 6- 1- 6- 1- 6- 1- 6- 1- 6- 1-
19 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 0 0 1
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 20
and palaeopedological topics was observed, and from 2011 onwards, these fields of
research together account for more than 50% of all micromorphological publications.
With regard to the language of publication, it was only after 1970 that English defi-
nitely passed the threshold of 50%, which has now increased to more than 90%. Before
1970, many papers were written in German (>50% in the period 1941-1950) and also in
French, Spanish and Russian, besides other languages such as Czech, Dutch, Hungarian,
Portuguese and Polish, representing the countries where micromorphology was strongly
developed as field of research. The loss of this linguistic diversity represents a real
impoverishment, for example, in the creation and formulation of concepts.
Several difficulties are encountered when making a synthesis of existing literature
data on micromorphological characteristics of materials and horizons in relation to their
genesis and classification (Stoops, 2001):
Most published micromorphological descriptions are unavoidably incomplete,
mentioning only the most relevant, striking or ‘diagnostic’ features, or only those
that the author was able to recognise. The most complete descriptions can be
found in reports and dissertations.
4 INTERPRETATION OF MICROMORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF SOILS AND REGOLITHS
For all these reasons it is not possible to relate, in a simple way, micromorphological
characteristics with genesis, classification or physical, chemical and mineralogical
properties. Much systematic research is therefore still needed.
Schaefer, 2010, 2018; Zauyah et al., 2010, 2018). This resulted in numerous publications
in journals and congress proceedings, besides a large number of unpublished reports
and dissertations. Much of this material has been summarised in books by Nahon (1991),
Tardy (1993) and especially Delvigne (1998).
published, for instance, by Morozova (1964), Smolikova (1967, 1978), Ferrari and Magaldi
(1968), Dalrymple (1972) and Bullock and Murphy (1979) (see also Mücher & Morozova,
1983). Especially in the field of loess stratigraphy a huge amount of micromorphological
research has been done (e.g., Smolikova, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1978; Bronger, 1969/1970,
1972; Kemp & Derbyshire, 1998; Kemp, 1999, 2001). The amount of micromorphological
data on pre-Quaternary soils is still limited, and practically no information is available
on diagenetic features developed after burial.
Today, it is difficult to imagine geoarchaeology without micromorphology. Although
the use of micromorphological techniques in archaeology dates already from the 1950s
(e.g., Cornwall, 1958), only after the late 1980s have archaeologists become a very active
group in micromorphology (see Courty et al., 1989; Davidson et al., 1992; Stoops, 2014; see
also Nicosia & Stoops, 2017). Archaeologists apply micromorphology mainly in two fields:
The study of soils and related materials, such as those resulting from forest
clearing, ancient cultivation methods or compaction through trampling by domes-
ticated animals, as well as buried soils, infills and earthy structures (see Adderley
et al., 2010, 2018); this type of research is closely related to the study of natural
soils, and existing micromorphological concepts and terms are adequate for the
description of these materials.
The interpretation of archaeological layers and the identification of archaeological
materials, such as excrements, mortars, burned materials, ashes and metal slag
(see Karkanas & Goldberg, 2010, 2018; Macphail & Goldberg, 2010, 2018); here
special features and materials are encountered, not completely covered by the
standard micromorphological concepts.