Dear colleagues,
As a retired palaeo-pedologist, now also interested in the History of Earth
Sciences, I have a question to whoever might be able to answer it or direct
me to the relevant publication on the history of palae-pedology.
I wonder who and when and where was the first to recognize and used
paleosols for environmental interpretation? Was it on the basis of buried
soils observed in loess sections somewhere, perhaps Richthofen in Europe
even before he went to China, or Murgoci in Romania or
somebody else before that ? I believe there is a long history, but where is
this documented ?
Soils of the past - both buried and unburied - are becoming an important
research object in the reproduction of past environmental conditions,
including in archaeology. They have been studied for over one hundred years
but it has so far eluded to me who, when and where were some of the pioneers
in this topic. Our methods are nowadays very different from those early and
that may be reason why we neglect these pioneering precursors, so hopefully
some of you interested in the History of Natural History will be able to
help me.
Thanking you in advance,
Dan Yaalon
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Prof. (emer.) Dan H. Yaalon
Institute of Earth Sciences
Hebrew University Givat Ram Campus
Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Fax : 972-2-5662581 or 02-5704411
E-Mail : [log in to unmask]
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