Evidence for the silicate source of relict soils on the Edwards Plateau, central Texas

Abstract

Relict soils provide insights into Quaternary soil formation and erosion on the Edwards Plateau of central Texas and into soil-forming processes in karst terranes. Late Quaternary climate-driven soil erosion produced a mosaic of thick and thin soils on the Edwards Plateau landscape. Thick soils on uplands of the Edwards Plateau are interpreted to be relicts of a formerly more extensive soil cover that was eroded during the late Pleistocene to middle Holocene. The relict, thick soils are silicate-rich and most commonly overlie the relatively silicate-poor Cretaceous Edwards Limestone, which supports the idea that the thick soils did not form from weathering of the underlying limestone. Other potential sources of silicates for the relict soils include dust, alluvial sediments, and the Del Rio Clay, a stratigraphically higher but locally eroded clay-rich unit. Here we investigate the geographic distribution, texture, clay-sized mineralogy, rare earth element geochemistry, and neodymium isotope composition of the relict soils. We have found that the relict, thick soils are deeply weathered soils that occur dominantly over the Edwards Limestone and have a high clay content and a neodymium isotope composition that is similar to that of the Del Rio Clay. Thus, we propose that in situ weathering of the Del Rio Clay, along with partial weathering of the upper portion of the underlying Edwards Limestone produced thick chert- and clay-rich soils over resistant limestone. In areas like the Edwards Plateau, where pure limestones are interbedded with clay-rich strata, the overlying clay-rich strata must be considered as a possible silicate source to soils on pure limestone bedrock.