Hot Off The Presses

As you discover more about the characteristics of the soil in your GLOBE study site, you will notice how relevant this investigation is to other subjects you are studying. The way the soil looks tells us something about the human history of the local area or the region and can give us information about the social structure of our modern society. It also can tell us the history of both the recent climate (such as how much water is in the soil in relation to rainfall patterns) or long term climate history (such as with the formation of red color in the soil due to intense weathering by rain and heat, or a gray-blue color if the soil has been wet for a long time). Soil properties store the geologic history of an area because the different properties depend on the landscape position and type of parent material that the soil developed (such as glacial till, windblown deposits, bedrock, and others).  (Click here to see an example of a soil which shows the record of its history!).