5.15 - Capstone Questions for Lesson 5 and Soil Region Resources
Space explorers have discovered a new planet!
The Space Exploration Agency wishes to identify the soil types present at several possible landing locations on the newly discovered planet, Zeus.
Your mission as an Earth Scientist is to assess the soil properties present at the potential landing sites.
Activity: Predict the soil order present at several different locations on Planet Zeus. Make your predictions based on your knowledge of soil orders and the information presented on the map and in the table below.
Site | Parent Material | Climate/Moisture Regime | Native Vegetation | Topography |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Old Silty Alluvium | Hot and humid | Rainforest | Mountains and foothills |
2 | Sandy Alluvium of moderate age | Cool and wet | Conifer forest | Coastal plains and mountains |
3 | Loamy Glacial Till of moderate age | Warm and humid | Deciduous, hardwood forest | Hilly river valleys and plains |
4 | Loess, of moderate age | Warm and somewhat dry | Prairie grassland | High plains |
5 | Aeolian sand | Hot Summer Cold winter and somewhat dry | Mixed prairie grasses | Rolling sand dunes, stabilized by grasses |
6 | Residuum and Colluvium of igneous rocks | Warm summer, Cold winter, Mediterranean precipitation pattern | Conifer forest, aspens, brushy meadows | Older mountains, foothills |
7 | Weathered Igneous rocks, fine-silty Alluvium | Warm and humid | Mixed hardwood/conifer forest | Coastal plains and foothills, older mountains |
8 | Silty Marine Sediments | Hot and dry | Sagebrush and creosote bush | Plains |
9 | Developed Lacustrine - Very fine silt and swelling clays | Warm and somewhat dry | Mixed prairie grasses and scrub bush | Plains |
10 | Volcanic Ash and Cinders | Warm and humid | Tropical forest | Mountains |
11 | Organic Material over Glacial Till and Outwash | Cool and wet climate | Marshy shrubs and bushes, grasses | Coastal plains and lowlands |
12 | Glacial Till and Outwash | Very cold and wet | Conifer forest Woody shrubs | Coastal plains and mountains |
Additional links to soil region materials:
The USDA 'Twelve Orders of Soil Taxonomy' Poster
Find lots of U.S. national maps at http://nationalatlas.gov/mapmaker
For world soil regions, classified using U.S. soil taxonomy, go to World Soil Resources.
Need outline maps of the U.S. and individual states? Find them at http://nationalatlas.gov/printable.html.