Effects of warfare on soil development

The influence of the physical environment on the outcome of battle is well-known but not the effects of warfare upon the environment particularly the soil. In view of this Hupy and Schaetzl (2008) studied the WWI battlefield of Verdun, France (1916). The battlefield which encompasses an area of 29,000 km2, remains one of the most heavily shelled of all time. Their findings revealed that many craters penetrated the shallow limestone bedrock, and blasted out fragments of limestone found on nearby undisturbed soils had already been incorporated into the soil profile. Although the battle happened less than a century ago (88 years), weathering and pedogenesis have already occurred in the soils within the craters. A major pedogenic process noted by the researchers is the accumulation and decomposition of organic matter, which is intimately associated with (and aided by) earthworm bioturbation (soil mixing). The study shows that warfare can cause dramatic changes in the soil and landscape. It also "provides insight into the ability of a landscape to recover following a catastrophic anthropogenic disturbance” wrote Hupy and Schaetzl.

Reference:

Hupy JP and RJ Schaetzl. 2008. Soil development on the WWI battlefield of Verdun, France. Geoderma 145: 37-49

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tropical soils: some important aspects of these less understood soils

Image
Tropical regions occur between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The tropics include approximately 40% of the land surface and is the largest ecozone of the earth. According to Köppen (1931), the tropics are characterized by an annual mean air temperature above 18°C through­out the whole year. The largest climatic variation is introduced by the variability of precipita­tion, reaching from nearly 0 mm in the Saharan and Atacama Desert to 11,700 mm on Mt. Waialeala in Hawaii (Eswaran et al., 1992). An Afisol (Luvisol) soil derived from mudstone in Eastern Samar, Philippines According to Uehara and Gillman  (1981), "t ropical soils" is a common name used to identify any soil that occurs in the tropics. They noted that like most common names, the term lacks precision, but it is more readily understood by a larger audience than are the scientific names. In contrast, Sanchez (1976) argued against the use of the term "tropical soils" since it does not accur
Read more

The causes of the Guinsaugon landslide

Image
On 17 February 2006, a catastrophic landslide buried the village of Guinsaugon, the second largest village of St. Bernard town (Southern Leyte, Philippines) killing more than a thousand residents and displacing approximately 19,000 people. The landslide originated on an approximately 800 m high escarpment produced by the Philippine Fault that bisects Leyte and the major islands of the Philippines. In a recent article which synthesized the papers presented during an international conference in Leyte 2008 and published in the international journal Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, Guthrie and co-workers (2009) arrived at the following conclusions: "The approximately 15 million m3 landslide was a result of progressive failures and tectonic weakening in a region made especially vulnerable by the inter-reaction of geological/tectonic, climatic and cultural factors. In southern Leyte, geology and tectonics (including historical seismicity, the progressive disintegr
Read more