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Parent Material and Pedogenic Processes in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

C. Bühmann
C. Bühmann*
Affiliation:
Institute for Soil, Climate and Water, Private Bag X79, Pretoria 0001, Republic of South Africa
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Abstract

The soils over about half of South Africa are developed from sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup. Some units within the Karoo strata display variations in their mineralogical composition which correlate with fluctuations in the environment of deposition and with palaeotemperature. The former trends are reflected in the ratio of kaolinite to 2:1 layer-silicates, range from kaolinite-dominated to kaolinite-free, and are particularly evident in rocks of the Vryheid Formation. Geothermal history is preserved in various stages of smectite illitization ranging from R = 0 structures with 25% illite to 100% illite. Compositional trends may be significant on a regional, local or topographic scale down to a distance equal to the depth of a soil profile or even an horizon.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 239 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

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