SSC 200 EXAM 1 REVIEW QUESTIONS
What are the 5 soil forming factors? - Answer -Climate, biota, topography, parent
material, and time
What are the 4 soil forming processes? What are some examples of each? - Answer -
1. Transformations- iron undergoes oxidation and reduction
2. Translocations- burrowing animals like earth worms create channels through which
air and water can travel
3. Additions- surface runoff can deposit materials eroded from higher elevations in the
drainage basin (alluviation)
4. Losses- leached salts from the soil profile
Describe the parent materials we discussed. What is the mode of transport (if
transported)? - Answer -(water, ice, wind, gravity):
Water: former lake bottoms (lacustrine), alongside streams (alluvium), or in ocean
bottoms (marine)
Ice: deposited by melting glaciers (glacial till and outwash)
Wind: wind blown materials (aeolian, loess)
Gravity: move downhill slopes (colluvium)
Name and describe diagnostic horizons. Which are at the surface? Which are
subsurface? - Answer -Epipedons are at the surface: Molluck and Umber, Volanic,
histic (wet) and filistic (cold) (both organic). Subsurface are argyllic (accumulation of
clay, bt horizon), bt is argyllic and bw is cambic.
Can you name and describe the Soil Orders?
Refer to overview document - Answer -Entisols: recent
Enceptisols: beginning, weak b horizon
Andisols: dark volcanic ash
Gelisols: freeze
Histosols: organic, tissue
Aridisols: dry arid, mechanical weathering
Vertisols: vertical cracking, shrink and swell
Malisols: thick dark prairie soil
Alfisols: al and f (ferrous) iron
Ultisols: last, ultimate
Spodosols: wood ash, Bh
Oxisols: oxide, anything and everything weathered
Do you understand the soil taxonomic structure? - Answer -the world's soils are classed
in the following categories (from the most general grouping to the most specific soil):
orders (12), suborders (68), great groups (444), subgroups (about 2500), families (about
8,000), and series about 25,000)
, What is the subgroup in "Fine-loamy mixed, superactive, mesic Aquic Argiudolls?"
A. Kanhapludults
B. Ultisol
C. Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic
D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
E. Udults - Answer -D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
What is the subgroup in "Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic Rhodic Kanhapludults?"
A. Kanhapludults
B. Ultisol
C. Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic
D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
E. Udults - Answer -D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
Know how to fill out the information for a given series
ex. Leon Series ~ Sandy, Siliceous, Thermic Aeric Alaquods - Answer -Taxonomic
Name:
Order:
Suborder:
Great Group:
Subgroup:
Family:
Series:
Which of the following soil lacks a B horizon and was formed under humid conditions?
A. Udent
B. Aquent
C. Udept
D. Aquept
(The logic used to answer this type of question:
1. Which lacks a B horizon?
2. Which is formed under humid conditions) - Answer -A.
Which of the following has a cambic diagnostic horizon?
A. Loamy, mixed, dysic, thermic Terric Haplosaprists
B. Sandy, Siliceous, Thermic Aeric Alaquods
C. Coarse-loamy, Mixed, Superactive, Nonacid, Thermic Typic Sulfaquents
D. Coarse-loamy, Siliceous, Active, Acid, Thermic Cumulic Humaquepts - Answer -D.
Taxonomical classification structure cont: - Answer -Order: presence or absence of
specific diagnostic horizons
Suborders: different soil moisture and soil temperature regimes, and by dominant
chemical and physical properties
What are the 5 soil forming factors? - Answer -Climate, biota, topography, parent
material, and time
What are the 4 soil forming processes? What are some examples of each? - Answer -
1. Transformations- iron undergoes oxidation and reduction
2. Translocations- burrowing animals like earth worms create channels through which
air and water can travel
3. Additions- surface runoff can deposit materials eroded from higher elevations in the
drainage basin (alluviation)
4. Losses- leached salts from the soil profile
Describe the parent materials we discussed. What is the mode of transport (if
transported)? - Answer -(water, ice, wind, gravity):
Water: former lake bottoms (lacustrine), alongside streams (alluvium), or in ocean
bottoms (marine)
Ice: deposited by melting glaciers (glacial till and outwash)
Wind: wind blown materials (aeolian, loess)
Gravity: move downhill slopes (colluvium)
Name and describe diagnostic horizons. Which are at the surface? Which are
subsurface? - Answer -Epipedons are at the surface: Molluck and Umber, Volanic,
histic (wet) and filistic (cold) (both organic). Subsurface are argyllic (accumulation of
clay, bt horizon), bt is argyllic and bw is cambic.
Can you name and describe the Soil Orders?
Refer to overview document - Answer -Entisols: recent
Enceptisols: beginning, weak b horizon
Andisols: dark volcanic ash
Gelisols: freeze
Histosols: organic, tissue
Aridisols: dry arid, mechanical weathering
Vertisols: vertical cracking, shrink and swell
Malisols: thick dark prairie soil
Alfisols: al and f (ferrous) iron
Ultisols: last, ultimate
Spodosols: wood ash, Bh
Oxisols: oxide, anything and everything weathered
Do you understand the soil taxonomic structure? - Answer -the world's soils are classed
in the following categories (from the most general grouping to the most specific soil):
orders (12), suborders (68), great groups (444), subgroups (about 2500), families (about
8,000), and series about 25,000)
, What is the subgroup in "Fine-loamy mixed, superactive, mesic Aquic Argiudolls?"
A. Kanhapludults
B. Ultisol
C. Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic
D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
E. Udults - Answer -D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
What is the subgroup in "Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic Rhodic Kanhapludults?"
A. Kanhapludults
B. Ultisol
C. Fine, Kaolinitic, Thermic
D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
E. Udults - Answer -D. Rhodic Kanhapludults
Know how to fill out the information for a given series
ex. Leon Series ~ Sandy, Siliceous, Thermic Aeric Alaquods - Answer -Taxonomic
Name:
Order:
Suborder:
Great Group:
Subgroup:
Family:
Series:
Which of the following soil lacks a B horizon and was formed under humid conditions?
A. Udent
B. Aquent
C. Udept
D. Aquept
(The logic used to answer this type of question:
1. Which lacks a B horizon?
2. Which is formed under humid conditions) - Answer -A.
Which of the following has a cambic diagnostic horizon?
A. Loamy, mixed, dysic, thermic Terric Haplosaprists
B. Sandy, Siliceous, Thermic Aeric Alaquods
C. Coarse-loamy, Mixed, Superactive, Nonacid, Thermic Typic Sulfaquents
D. Coarse-loamy, Siliceous, Active, Acid, Thermic Cumulic Humaquepts - Answer -D.
Taxonomical classification structure cont: - Answer -Order: presence or absence of
specific diagnostic horizons
Suborders: different soil moisture and soil temperature regimes, and by dominant
chemical and physical properties
