Late Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Feather and Yuba rivers area, California, with a section on soil development in mixed alluvium at Honcut Creek

Abstract

FOREWORDThis series of reports, "Soil Chronosequences in the Western United States," attempts to integrate studies of different earth-science disciplines, including pedology, geomorphology, stratigraphy, and Quaternary geology in general.Each discipline provides information important to the others. From geomorphic relations we can determine the relative ages of deposits and soils; from stratigraphy we can place age constraints on the soils. Field investigations and mineralogic and sedimentologic studies provide information on the nature and types of deposits in which soils form. As a result of our work, we have estimated rates of soil formation, inferred processes of soil formation from trends in soil development with increasing age, and obtained information on the types of weathering that occur in various areas. In return, soil development and soil genesis have provided data on the age of landforms; the timing and duration of sedimentation, and, in some cases, the history of climatic fluctuations.Between 1978 and 1983, a coordinated and systematic study was conducted on soil development in different types of geologic deposits in the Western United States. The goals of this project, led by the late D.E. Marchand and subsequently by M.N. Machette, were to learn whether rates of chemical, physical, and mineralogic transformations could be determined from soil chronosequences; hqw these rates vary in different mineralogic and climatic environments; and how accurately soils can be used for such problems as estimating the ages of deposits, periods of landscape stability, and timing of fault movements. This series of reports presents data from several soil chronosequences of that project.More than 100 analyses on more than 1,000 samples were performed on soils collected in the Western United States. Some results have appeared in various books, journals, and maps (for example, Harden and Marchand, 1977, 1980;Burke and Birkeland, 1979;Dethier and Bethel, 1981;Marchand and Allwardt, 1981;Meixner and Singer, 1981;Busacca, 1982; Harden, 1982a,b;Harden and Taylor, 1983;Machette, 1983;Machette and Steven, 1983; Busacca and others, 1984; Machette and others, 1984;Reheis, 1984). In the reports in this series, the basic field information, geologic back&round, and analytical data are presented for each chronosequence, as well as some results additional to the previous publications.One of the most significant aspects of these chronosequence studies is that in every study area, many soil parameters change systematically over time, or with the age of deposits. As Deming (1943) emphasized, it is this recurrence of correlation in such different conditions that is most significant to geologic and pedologic studies. In relatively moist areas, such as coastal and central California, such soil properties as percent clay or reddening of soil colors change most systematically over time. In more arid regions, such as in the Bighorn basin of Wyoming, calcium carbonate and gypsum contents best reflect relative ages of the deposits. A few para...