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Gelisols are an order in USDA soil taxonomy. They are soils of very cold climates which are defined as containing permafrost within two meters (6 ft 7 in) of the soil surface. The word "Gelisol" comes from the Latin gelare meaning "to freeze", a reference to the process of cryoturbation that occurs from the alternating thawing and freezing ...
Soils with ground ice or other permafrost features within one meter of the surface. In paleosols, locations of ice can be preserved as clastic dikes, freeze banding, or other deformations created by ground ice. Tillites and other glacigenic deposits are indicative of Gelisols. These soils form under polar desert, tundra, and taiga vegetation.
Andisols: Form from volcanic ejecta, dominated by allophane or Al-humic complexes; Must have andic soil properties: high in poorly crystalline Fe and Al minerals, high in phosphorus, low bulk density, and high proportions of glass and amorphous colloidal materials, such as allophane, imogolite and ferrihydrite; high organic matter content ...
In the US, Gelisols occur only in parts of Alaska; they are characterized by having permafrost within 100 cm of the surface. Histosols are organic soils lacking permafrost within 100 cm of the surface; they are characteristically formed on wet sites, e.g. bogs, some fens and some muskeg areas. Some Histosols have been drained, especially to ...
Distribution of Gleysols. A gleysol or gley soil is a hydric soil that unless drained is saturated with groundwater for long enough to develop a characteristic gleyic colour pattern.
However, in these periods fossil gelisols are generally abundant, notable finds coming from the Carboniferous in New South Wales. The earliest land vegetation is found in Early Silurian entisols and inceptisols, and with the growth of land vegetation under a protective ozone layer several new soil orders emerged.
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The extent of cryoturbation in gelisols varies considerably: it occurs much more on exposed sites (where turbels dominate everywhere) than in sheltered sites such as valleys (where orthels are not significantly affected by cryoturbation form).