Some Relations Among Coastal Plain Soils and Geomorphic Surfaces in North Carolina

Abstract

Abstract Soils on the upper and middle Coastal Plain surfaces in North Carolina have been exposed to surface weathering for about 3‐ to 10‐million years. This makes it possible to evaluate the effect of soil formation of long duration on soil properties. Solum thickness, percentage of soils with plinthite, and gibbsite content increase from the youngest to the oldest surface, but kaolinite content and percentage of soils with Be bodies decrease in this direction. Solum thickness, percent of soils with plinthite, gibbsite and kaolinite content and percentage of soils with Be bodies have a curvilinear change with time. Soil properties are not always related to the total time of subaerial weathering because some soil processes do not begin for a million or more years after weathering starts. Changing internal soil environments produced by changing water‐table regimes is a major factor influencing soil formation in these soils. Changing water‐table regimes probably are produced largely by landscape evolution.