How to Make Paleosols

Directions

Step 1

Start with a layer of rock or sediment, begin to break it up using plant roots and or animal burrows

Step 2

Soak water into the rock, through the holes and cracks

Step 3

Collect organic decay from the plants and animals, release iron & manganese from the organic material

Step 4

Make leaf litter tea with leaf litter, other organics, iron, manganese, and water

– Manganese prevents iron from rusting, manganese and iron prevent organics from washing away

– Manganese-Organic molecules are brown, iron-organic molecules are black

Step 5

Filter the leaf litter tea down thru rock forming 4 uniquely colored layers

A- Organic layer-brown and black

E- filter layer- bleached white or gray

B – enriched with clays & minerals -colorful, depends on the minerals but usually red or yellow

C- Altered rock from step 1

R- Unaltered rock from step 1

Step 6

Filter out iron and clay from the A and E layers, collecting them in the B layer

-Without manganese, iron will react with oxygen and change color as it crystallizes into different minerals

-Manganese stays mostly in the A layer with the organic molecules

-The iron mineral and color that forms ultimately depends on the climate

Step 7

Cover and bury the soil layers you want to preserve with sediment such as sand and mud

Step 8

Compact & cement the soil with groundwater and minerals to turn it into a rock

-Brown and black organics will wash away so layers A and E look alike

Step 9

Repeat several times to create striping patterns A, B, A, B etc.

-Change the climate to change the color

-Yellows are wetter climates, reds are drier climates