A TERTIARY‐QUATERNARY PEDOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY FOR THE SOUTH‐EASTERN PORTION OF THE AUSTRALIAN ARID ZONE

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Abstract
Summary: The alternation of pluvial and non‐pluvial periods during the Tertiary‐Quaternary resulted in periodicity of soil formation and landscape development. Soils were formed during the pluvial periods, when the landscape was protected from erosion deposition by a well‐developed vegetative cover. Varying amounts of erosion and deposition occurred during the non‐pluvial periods, when the vegetative cover was sparser.The Tertiary erosional periods were characterized by water erosion‐deposition and major changes of land form. During each of the Quaternary erosional periods the climate became desertic; there was widespread erosion by wind but little modification of the landscape.The soils are of four different ages. In addition, surface silcretes were formed during another period of landscape stability. All of the soils in the region are paleosols.