New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Soils are widely used in geomorphic studies to correlate and provide relative ages of geomorphic surfaces. This approach usually involves describing a few soils on a number of surfaces of different ages and determining their relative duration of pedogenesis. The processes that control the spatial variability of soil landscapes can be grouped under two broad heading as either Temporal or Spatial controls. Temporal control means that the pattern of soil variability is determined by the ages of the geomorphic surfaces in question. Once the soils have been forming for some time other influences such as position on a slope (Catenas) or aspect differences come to determine the pattern of soil variability in a drainage basin. Understanding the different controls on soil landscapes is imperative when designing a sampling strategy for characterizing a soil landscape. Two drainage basins, Camp Creek in New Zealand and a small first order drainage on the Sevilleta Wildlife refuge, New Mexico provide a "framework for examining the different controls on soil landscapes.