The surface features and soil pattern of the Hamilton basin

The Holocene history of the Hamilton basin and development of the soil pattern are closely related. The basin was partly filled by the large alluvial fan of the Waikato River which partly buried a hilly, ash-covered landscape. The normal depositional pattern of fans is recognisable (apex of coarse sediments; middle part with ridges of coarse sediments and swales with fine sediments; toe of fine sediments) but has been modified by changing river courses during fan building. Each of these courses was flanked by levees which dammed valleys and embayments and blocked drainage to form lakes. The lakes were the sources of the present day peat bogs. The properties of the soils developed on the wide range of parent materials and landforms in the basin are summarised

The age of quaternary surfaces at Waihi Beach

The Waihi Beach surfaces were originally mapped and correlated with European surfaces of similar altitude by Kear and Waterhouse (1961). Exposures along the edges of the surfaces indicate that they are covered with volcanic ashes, the younger of which are of known age. It is the sub-ash surface which should be used for height correlations, and it is the most seaward ash-covered part of the surface which is preferred as the reference point for altitude studies. The heights of the surfaces may not correlate with positions of sea-level at the ages indicated by the ash beds

Soil-landscape and climatic relationships in the middle Miocene of the Madrid Basin

The Miocene alluvial-lacustrine sequences of the Madrid Basin, Spain, formed in highly varied landscapes. The presence of various types of palaeosols allows assessment of the effects of local and external factors onsedimentation, pedogenesis and geomorphological development. In the northern, more arid, tectonicallyactive arca, soils were weakly developed in aggrading alluvial fans, dominated by mass flows. reflecting high sedimentation rates. In more distal parts of the fans and in playa lakes calcretes and dolocretes developed: the former were associated with Mg-poor fan sediments whitc: the latter formed on Mg-rich lake clays exposed during minar lake lowstands. The nonh-east part of the basin had a less arid climate. Alluvial fans in this area were dominated by stream Aood deposits, sourced by carbonate terrains. Floodplain and freshwater lakc deposits formed in distal areas. The high local supply of calcium carbonate may have contributed to the preferential developmenl on calcretes on the fans. Both the fan and floodplain palaeosols exhibit pedofacies relationships and more mature soils developed in settings more distant from the sediment sources. Palaeosols also developed on pond and lake margin carbonates, and led to the formation of palustrine limestones. The spatial distributions and stratigraphies of palaeosols in the Madrid Basin alluvial fans suggest that soil formation was controlled by local factors. These palaeosols differ from those seen in Quatemary fans. Which are characterized by climatically induced periods of stability and instability

Quaternary environmental change in New Zealand and its effects on the soil pattern

NZ is an exceptional place for studying environmental change and soil evolution during the Quaternary: (1) it lies in a climatically sensitive, oceanic location spanning 17 degrees of the mid-latitudes; (2) its active plate boundary setting has produced high mountains lying athwart the prevailing westerlies, active volcanism, and a dynamic landscape; and (3) it has an exceptionally short prehistory (c. 700 years). Consequently, there is a striking diversity of topography - the landscape is characterized by strong relief and youthfulness - and lithology, markedly variable climatic regimes, and a unique, relict 'Gondwana' flora. In this paper, we firstly describe environmental change in NZ during the Quaternary and then examine examples of the effects of such change, chiefly during and since the LG, on the soil pattern in NZ