I remember reading that Rome got three feet higher every 500 years. Can't substantiate that with a link though.
You all are right , with the exception of broken promises. Theres a guy at the U of Sydney, name of HOsbeek. He has a math model that helps understand and predict the formation of soil in lowlands, highlands, etc. Like most math models it uses the computers crunching power to run vast (and some halfvast) equations over and over , so It helps predict the thickness of soils under natural(non human kind or "{non'anthropogenic}" help.
Formation of soil is called pedogenesis, its actually a separate small area of geology and applied agricultural engineering. A soil scientist is an agronomist-ag dept
geomorphologist-geology
geotech engineer-foundation mechanics
paleopedologist- geology again
Sometime this information may win you a beer. I have some soil scientists working for my company, they are very useful because they are able to trace transported mineralization and transported "lag" deposits of stuff we are looking for. however, their technical vocabulary , like most separate disciplines is loaded with 5 syllable jargon and secret words that help keep them employed because the rest of us just look at each other and say "ok".
Be careful when they go to the six syllable jargon Farmerman, their looking for a raise.
Most of the soil I excavate in is very simple. You have six inches of humus and then it's all glacial.
so the haploudultic A horizon is litter , underlain by a bigass allocthanous mass of drift, moraine, or glaciofluvial .
See how yourdescription sounds more like communication acquiunk? DO you get tech reports all loaded with insider language when it doesnt need it?
I just finished a stint as a tech editor for a geo pub and , because Im more industry than acadaem, i am always shouting tha we, as scientists should make our results more approachable from one sub discipline to the next.
i might as well try to drink the Gulf of Mexico.
Of course, as a layman I read a little of the literature on projectile typography and Ive got to admit, I have no idea where they come up with all the names and types .
Some years ago we had a very (for New England) deep prehistoric site in the Connecticut Valley. The soil consisted of a basal (bottom) level of lacustriane (lake bed) clay over lain by alternate levels of Aeolian (wind blown) deposits and fluvial (flood) sediments. Although you could identify levels of human occupation simply by charting the artifact concentration by depth the soil itself was a uniform light reddish brown from top to bottom, about six feet (1.85 meters). Someone (I forget who) got the bright idea that we could identify occupation levels more exactly by charting variation in particle size and soil chemistry. The assumption was that surfaces that were occupied (trod upon etc.) would have a different signature than those that were not. So the soil scientists were called in. No one could read the report, and has far as I know the idea has been dropped.
Quote:projectile typography
is that some sort of ballistic spelling mistake?
why is that not in a little quote box?
What about the moles and the earthworms? They dig soil from below, and scatter it on the surface. So anything on the surface relatively sinks.
But, I think the main factor at work here is airborne dust. And plants and insects. There are some miner ants active round my house and they keep depositing soil grains in heaps around the tunnel entrances to their colonies. I calculate in 50 or 60 years they will have buried the house to eaves level.
Any chance we can see you before its mr and mrs earthwormworks?
mcT-That math model , I mentioned, has a small amount for "bioturbation" and the amount varies based on a number of factors ,9none of which I know a damn thing about) dust is a biggey, so is "creep" which is soil from a high place rolling downhill, other things like, alluvial deposition, forest litter, human occupation, and atmospheric deposition all are factored in. I never played with the model much because, as a rock guy, I think that most soil just comes from weathering of bedrock and I dont bother any further, unless its got something worth finding. Also mcT-those small particles that the miner ants are depositing. Could that be parts of your house/?
The ants maybe merely demonstrating the second law of thermodynamics using your house as a lab. we had "acrobat" ants in our place when we moved in and the exterminators bagged the entire house and we lived in a motel and boarded the pets for over 2 weeks cause they have been known to eviscerate a house by chewing into the beams and floors.
P
STEVE-
Projectile typography--hee hee, i have no idea where I came up with that one.
projectile typology is the correct phrase, I think. (Im so freee with the language and my fingers on the keyboard I never know whats gonna come out next and Im too lazy to fix it) sorry, you are correct , I meant the term that has to do with the various types , forms , and original locations for the various kinds of projectile points.
So how has Rome gotten its many new levels??? Sloughing from the local mountains? Garbage layers?
id go with the garbage layer theory. Its pretty much a midden isnt it?
HEY acquiunk, this is your field
I'd incline toward garbage layers myself.
