Old Ultramafic Soils with Ferruginous Black Nodules along the Western Margin of the Klamath Mountains, California and Oregon
- 1 Pittsburg, CA, USA
Abstract
The Klamath Mountains of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic were reduced to a peneplain in the Miocene. Subsequently, the mountains have risen thousands of meters and been dissected by erosion. Along the western margin of the Klamath Mountains, in areas where the peneplain has not risen more than a few hundred meters, there are remnants of the peneplain with some very old ultramafic soils that have black, magnetic nodules in the surface horizons. Maghemite is the magnetic mineral in the nodules, although the soils have much more iron (Fe) in goethite. There is no more than a possible trace of any manganese oxide mineral in the nodules. The ferruginous nodules are in soils that are well drained and have reddish hues. There are nearly 50 thousand hectares of soils with black nodules in Klamath Mountains. They are in ferruginous Kanhapludalfs and Kandihumults, and a few hundred hectares of ferritic Kandihumults. Soils with ferruginous and ferritic black noddles are sparse in California, but common in ultramafic soils on islands in the Caribbean sea.
- Hotz, P.E. (1964) Nickeliferous Laterites in Southwestern Oregon and Northwestern California. Economic Geology , 59, 355-396. https://doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.59.3.355
- Ramp, L. (1978) Investigations of Nickel in Oregon. Oregon Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Miscellaneous Paper 20, 68 p.
- Fillmore, M.H. (2005) Soil Survey of Curry County, Oregon. USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service.
- Miles, S. and Roath, B. (1993) Soil Survey, Six Rivers National Forest, California. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.
- Alexander, E.B. (2010) Old Neogene Summer-Dry Soils with Ultramafic Parent Materials. Geoderma , 159, 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2010.06.006
- Alexander, E.B. (2014) Arid to Humid Serpentine Soils, Mineralogy, and Vegetation across the Klamath Mountains, Usa. CATENA , 116, 114-122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2013.12.003
- Diller, J.S. (1902) Physiographic Development of the Klamath Mountain. U.S. Geological Survey.
- Aalto, K.R. (2006) The Klamath Peneplain: A Review of J.S. Diller’s Classic Erosion Surface. In: Snoke, A.W. and Barnes, C.G., Eds., Geological Studies in the Klamath Mountains Province , California and Oregon : A Volume in Honor of William P . Irwin , Geological Society of America, 451-463. https://doi.org/10.1130/2006.2410(22)
- Alexander, E.B. (2021) Ultramafic Geoecology of North America, Arctic to Caribbean. iUniverse.
- Helmanstein. A.M. (2020) Transition Metal Colors in Aqueous Solution.
- Scheinost, A.C. and Schwertmann, U. (1999) Color Identification of Iron Oxides and Hydroxysulfates. Soil Science Society of America Journal , 63, 1463-1471. https://doi.org/10.2136/sssaj1999.6351463x
- Shacklette, H.G. and Boerngen, D.G. (1984) Element Concentrations in Soils and Other Surficial Materials of the Coterminous United States. U.S. Geological Survey.