Geography Atlas

Where Everything Happened
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Physical Processes

Pedogenesis

PEE-doh-JEN-ih-sis
Also Known As Soil Formation

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Pedogenesis is the formation of soil from weathered rock and organic matter into the layered profile of horizons a mature soil shows. Five factors classically govern the outcome: climate, the organisms present, the relief of the land, the parent material weathering supplies, and the time available, which for a fully developed profile is measured in decades to several thousand years.

Facts
Process Type
Geomorphological 1
Timescale
Decades to several thousand years for a mature soil profile to develop. 1
First Proposed Year
1883 2
Cross-Tradition Connections

Demonstrated By

Daintree Rainforest, Landforms

The Daintree's ancient, heavily leached tropical soils are a textbook case of rapid organic-matter cycling paired with deep chemical weathering.

Sources
1. Pedogenesis (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationDefinition section
Quote, Definition section
Soil formation, also known as pedogenesis, is the process of soil genesis as regulated by the effects of place, environment, and history.
View the Source
1. Pedogenesis (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFactors section, process-type
Quote, Factors section, process-type
Climate is the dominant factor in soil formation, and soils show the distinctive characteristics of the climate zones in which they form.
View the Source
1. Pedogenesis (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationFactors section, timescale
Quote, Factors section, timescale
It takes decades to several thousand years for a soil to develop a profile, although the notion of soil development has been criticized.
View the Source
2. Vasily Dokuchaev (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationBiography section
Quote, Biography section
He arrived at his theory after extensive field studies on Russian soils in 1883. His most famous work is Russian Chernozem (1883).
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.