A MORPHOMETRIC SYSTEM FOR DESCRIBING THE MICROMORPHOLOGY OF ORGANIC SOILS AND ORGANIC LAYERS: FURTHER QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE CHARACTERIZATION

Abstract

At the first level of detail of description of a thin section, qualitative information about the occurrence of the fabric zones (regions of distinct morphology) and their basic morphologic units (the various components) were recorded with symbols in a fabric description symbol. At a second level of detail of description, Level II, additional quantitative and qualitative micromorphological information can be included with coding into the fabric description symbol according to the following. general format:[Formula: see text]At Level II description, quantitative information on the areal proportions of the fabric zones and basic morphologic units are recorded with indices in the fabric unit; qualitative data on the kind of boundary relationships between adjacent fabric zones, and quantitative data on the areal occurrence of the fabric zones are recorded with the modifier expression; and both quantitative and qualitative information on the occurrence, morphology, and arrangement of specific features observed in the fabric zones are recorded with the fabric unit descriptor. Depending on the requirements of a study, more than one fabric unit descriptor can be written for each fabric zone that is delineated in a thin section. The procedure for writing fabric description symbols at a Level II detail of description of a thin section is presented and applied to the characterization of the micromorphology of an organic layer from a Typic Mesisol. Key words: Micromorphology, descriptive method, organic soils, characterization