Soil Profile Gallery

You have just come home from a long day at school and you are ready to change into some comfy clothes. When you change, you put your day’s clothes in the pile of dirty clothes. As you do so, you notice that you need to do laundry—the clothes are really piling up. The ones on the bottom of the pile were from a week ago!

Just as the layers of clothes in the laundry pile correspond to specific time periods, distinct soil layers also develop as time progresses and older soils move down. These layers are called soil horizons. The full cross-section of all the horizons in a given soil is called the soil profile. Each of the following pictures shows a soil profile from different locations in the United States. Study them and then answer the questions below.

What are some differences and similarities you observe in these images?
 

Similarities: Each soil sample has similar textures; there are similar colors in a couple of the images.
Differences: Each profile has a different number of layers.

Which image has the most layers of soil?
 

The last image has the most layers—if you look closely, it has four.

In which image has the soil gone through the most stages of development?
 

Because the last image has more layers, it has gone through more soil development stages.