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Paleoclimatology (thesaurus)

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Concept information

constituent of the planet Earth > earth surface > continental surface > soil > paleosol

Preferred term

paleosol  

Definition

  • In geoscience, paleosol (palaeosol in Great Britain and Australia) is an ancient soil that formed in the past. The definition of the term in geology and paleontology is slightly different from its use in soil science. In geology and paleontology, a paleosol is a former soil preserved by burial underneath either sediments (alluvium or loess) or volcanic deposits (volcanic ash), which in the case of older deposits have lithified into rock. In Quaternary geology, sedimentology, paleoclimatology, and geology in general, it is the typical and accepted practice to use the term "paleosol" to designate such "fossil soils" found buried within sedimentary and volcanic deposits exposed in all continents. In soil science the definition differs slightly: paleosols are soils formed long ago that have no relationship in their chemical and physical characteristics to the present-day climate or vegetation. Such soils are found within extremely old continental cratons, or in small scattered locations in outliers of other ancient rock domains. Palaeosols are frequently used as palaeoclimatological tools for gauging the climate in which they formed. Because rates and styles of weathering are dependent on climatic factors, paleosols can be used to reconstruct variables of past climate. Mean annual precipitation (MAP) and air temperature (MAAT) are two commonly-reconstructed variables which, along with seasonality and in conjunction with other paleoenvironmental tools, can be used to describe past terrestrial climates. A suite of paleoclimatic proxies exist and while they vary in focus, many rely on changes in chemical composition throughout a soil profile that occur during weathering, burial, and post-burial processes. Soils form in near-constant contact with the atmosphere, so their chemical composition is affected by the composition of the atmosphere through both direct and indirect pathways. The oxidation of paleosols has been used as an indicator of atmospheric oxygen, which has risen over Earth's history. Paleosols have also been used to reconstruct atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, based on modern studies of soil carbon gas exchange, carbon isotopes in pedogenic carbonate nodules, and mass-balance approaches taking multiple atmospheric gases (typically carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane) into account. These methods are being actively developed in the field of early Earth research. (Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleosol)

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Entry terms

  • palaeosoil
  • palaeosol
  • paleosoil

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/QX8-NW128W3C-L

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