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Desert Pavement and Vesicular Layer of Some Soils of the Desert of the Lahontan Basin, Nevada¹

ABSTRACT

Desert pavement and vesicular layer are described as distinct horizons of some Gray Desert soils. Distribution of > 2-mm. and < 2-mm. particles in the profile along with laboratory tests suggest that accumulation of gravel and stones at the surface to form a desert pavement is not due solely to removal of finer material by wind or water. There has also been some upward movement of coarse fragments from the nearly stone-free layers below.

Some properties of vesicular layers are pointed out by field and laboratory studies. Natural vesicular structure was destroyed by sieving and a new, but similar, structure formed by merely wetting and drying the soil. This led to a hypothesis for origin of the vesicular layer as a pedogenic horizon.

¹ Contribution of the Department of Soils, University of California, Berkeley.

² Associate Professor of Agronomy, University of Tennessee.

Received for publication September 29, 1955. Accepted for publication September 17, 1957.