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  1. Home/
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  3. Soil Orders/
  4. Vertisols

Vertisols (from Latin verto, "turn") are clay-rich soils that shrink and swell with changes in moisture content. During dry periods, the soil volume shrinks and deep wide cracks form. The soil volume then expands as it wets up. This shrink/swell action creates serious engineering problems and generally prevents formation of distinct, well-developed horizons in these soils. They are divided into six suborders: Aquerts, Cryerts, Xererts, Torrerts, Usterts and Uderts.

Globally, Vertisols occupy approximately 2.4% of the ice-free land area. In the U.S., they occupy approximately 2% of the land area and occur primarily in Texas.

Vertisols layers of soil
Vertisols have: (1) a layer at least 25 cm thick that has slickensides or wedge-shaped peds with tilted long axes; and (2) at least 30% clay in all horizons to a depth of 50 cm; and (3) cracks that open and close periodically. (USDA-NRCS)

Soil Orders

  • Alfisols
  • Andisols
  • Aridisols
  • Entisols
  • Gelisols
  • Histosols
  • Inceptisols
  • Mollisols
  • Oxisols
  • Spodosols
  • Ultisols
  • Vertisols

Aquerts

Vertisols with a water table at or near the surface for much of the year

Usterts (India)

Vertisols of semiarid and subhumid climates

Uderts (Texas)

Vertisols of humid climates

Vertisol Landscape Patterns

Gilgai, which are small-scale undulations or mounds and depressions in the land surface, and slickensides, which are polished and grooved surfaces within the soil profile formed by the shrinking and swelling of clay-rich materials

Vertisol Features

Vertisols are a soil order characterized by high clay content, significant shrink-swell behavior and the presence of deep, wide cracks that open and close periodically

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Soil Orders

  • Alfisols
  • Andisols
  • Aridisols
  • Entisols
  • Gelisols
  • Histosols
  • Inceptisols
  • Mollisols
  • Oxisols
  • Spodosols
  • Ultisols
  • Vertisols

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Department of Soil and Water Systems

Email: rheinse@uidaho.edu
Location: E. J. Iddings Agricultural Science Laboratory, Rm 242; 606 S Rayburn St
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875 Perimeter Drive MS 2340
Moscow, ID 83844-2340

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