Weathering Regimes and Pedogenic Variability on Large Boulders, Karkevagge, Northern Scandinavia

• Main Author: Allen, Charles Edward
• Other Authors: Colin E. Thorn
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2001
• Subjects: Geology; Arctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/85139

252 p. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001. The following conclusions were established from field, laboratory, and statistical analyses: (1) Clay content was marginally greater in soils developed on garnet-mica-schist than mica-schist; (2) Silt and clay content did not reflect eolian sediment input; (3) Soils that have formed on boulder tops are characterized as residual soils; (4) Deeper soils had developed overlying vertical schistocity; (5) Muscovite, chlorite and mixed-layer (ML) minerals were the predominant clay minerals in the boulder soils, with the presence of the secondary clay minerals indicating that chemical weathering was occurring; (6) The soil-rock interface is presumed to be the location where most of the chemical activity concentrates, which when combined with the effects of schistocity indicates that microvariability and microenvironment are important to weathering and pedogenesis in Karkevagge; (7) Despite characterization as weakly developed soils, embryonic spodic properties are evident in a number of the boulder-top soils; and (8) While Karkevagge is a mild arctic environment, and boulder-top soil development was characterized as weak, there is substantial chemical weathering occurring in the form of oxidation. Based on these conclusions this study of the boulder-top microenvironment provided further support for chemical weathering as an active geomorphic process in Karkevagge.