The Sangamon Paleosol in Brown County, Kansas

 

Randall J. Schaetzl

 

A previously unstudied Sangamon paleosol was examined in Brown County, Kansas, to determine its characteristics and geographic distribution. The paleosol is buried by Wisconsinan loesses on uplands, where it is enriched in base elements eluviated from the loess. On shoulder slopes the soil is exhumed and leached. Stratigraphic evidence suggests that the soil is developed in thin Loveland loess over pre-Illinoian till beneath uplands while downslope, in exhumed locations, the Loveland member has been eroded and the truncated paleosol is formed only in till. The paleosol appears to have been a very strongly developed Ultisol or Mollisol at the time of burial.