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Clay Skin Genesis in Wisconsin Soils¹

ABSTRACT

Clay skins separated from the B₃ horizon of the "Ockley-like" silt loam, a Gray-Brown Podzolic soil, were further analyzed and found to contain 186% as much total phosphorus and 177% as much total manganese as the bulk of the same horizon. More than 200 thin sections were made of samples from a variety of Wisconsin soils, including soils of the Podzol, Gray-Brown Podzolic, Brunizem and Humic-Gley great soil groups. A study of volume of clay skins, as determined from microscopic views of thin sections, and soluble salt concentration revealed that in the "Ockley-like" profile maxima of both occurred in the C₁ horizon. By alternately leaching with percolate from a leaching column and drying with a water aspirator, artificial clay skins were produced in "unweathered" loess material. From observations made during this study a definition of the term "clay skin" is proposed and it is concluded that clay skins in Wisconsin soils are formed by the percolation of dilute clay suspension, from which clay is deposited at or below the bottom of the solum as percolation ceases and the larger pores are emptied of water.

¹ Contribution from the Soil Survey Division, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey and the Soils Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Published with the permission of the Director of the Wisconsin Agr. Exp. Sta. This work was supported in part by the Research Committee of the Graduate School with funds from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

² Former Research Asst., Soil Survey Div., Wis. Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey and Soils Dept., University of Wisconsin; now Asst. Professor of Agricultural Chemistry and Soils, University of Arizona. Tucson; and Associate Professor of Soils, in charge, Soil Survey Division, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Received for publication October 17, 1960. Accepted for publication April 5, 1961.