Synonyms
Secondary terrestrial carbonates; Soil carbonates; Vadose zone carbonates
Definition
Definition and mineralogy
Pedogenic carbonates are authigenic (or secondary) carbonate deposits precipitated in soils (Lal et al., 2000). When found in the soil but directly inherited from parent materials, carbonates are defined as detrital or lithogenic (Kraimer et al., 2005). Pedogenic carbonates are characterized by a wide diversity of shapes, from secondary diffuse micritic (micron-size) crystals inside the soil matrix to coalescent hardened layers, sometimes capping whole landscapes. They are mainly composed of calcium carbonate as calcite and rarely as aragonite (Schaetzl and Anderson, 2005), of magnesian calcite, dolomite (Whipkey et al., 2002), and occasionally of iron-rich carbonate such as ferroan calcite, siderite, and ankerite (Table 1). Iron-rich carbonates are generally found in organic-rich soils and soils under the influence of water-table fluctuations with active...
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Bibliography
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Verrecchia, E.P. (2011). Pedogenic Carbonates. In: Reitner, J., Thiel, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geobiology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9212-1_161
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