Every Soil Has A Story

They are clam and oyster shells (as well as some pebbles rounded by washing down the river during flood events). What do you think was going on in the Chesapeake Bay about 400 - 450 years ago? The indigenous people would come to the Bay for their holiday feasts and they would party and eat lots of clams and oysters and this is essentially what was left over after the parties. These shells eventually flowed down into this creek bed and became part of the soil profile.

The last part of the story takes us to the beginning. The lowest two horizons in this profile are of an earlier soil that was buried under the river sediments of the newer soil. The buried soil shows structure, colors and other features that indicate it is many thousands of years old and was in a swampy area before the river changed its course a bit and began to bury it.

This is an example of how a soil can be a record of the history of the area around it and thus have its own story.

(If you'd like to go back to the first part of this soil's story, click here.)

(If you'd like to go back to the second part of this soil's story, click here.)

If you have a soil story that you wish to have published on this web site, please send the story, along with any photos or images to: Dr. Elissa Levine.