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.