Morphology and mineralogy of red desert soils in the libyan sahara

Abstract

Abstract The occurrence of red desert soil profiles developed on Nubian Sandstone in the Libyan Sahara is discussed. From an examination of profile morphology in the field and the position of the soils at 970 m on an old land surface, it would be possible to regard them as desert paleosols formed under a previous humid climatic phase during the Quaternary. However, an investigation of the mineralogy of the soils and the underlying parent rocks strongly suggests that the properties of the soils are largely dependent on the parent material. Both have identical patterns of kaolinite content, haematite as the main ferric oxide, and similar proportions of quartz silt and coarse quartz sand. Therefore, the use of kaolinite and ferric oxides in interpreting past soil‐forming climates in arid regions needs to be carried out with caution, for in the present case such an interpretation would be unreliable.