EDAPHOIDS AND PALEOSOLS OF BASALTIC ORIGIN IN THE GALILEE, ISRAEL

Red soil-like layers intercalated amid basaltic flows from the Miocene-Pleistocene in the Galilee, Israel, were examined. Micromorphological features which can be related to (a) translocation of materials, and (b) biological activity, and are therefore of distinct pedological origin, identify two of the layers as paleosols. Absence of these features and preservation of the fabric of the parent basalt serve to identify the third layer as an edaphoid. A fourth layer consists of an edaphoid superimposed on a paleosol. The edaphoids are composed almost entirely of a dioctahedral smectite. In two of the paleosols dioctahedral smectites predominate. In the third kaolinite and haematite are present also in considerable amounts. The presence of quartz in the paleosols is attributed partly to precipitation from Si-rich solutions percolating the upper basalt layer and partly to aeolian contamination. In all the layers the free iron is predominantly in an anhydrous form. Similarity in the clay mineral composition of the Plio-Pleistocene paleosols with that of contemporaneous basaltic soils is taken to indicate similarity in climatic conditions of formation. Differentiation between paleosols and edaphoids cannot be made by the use of a single criterion but must be based on corroborative evidence derived from micromorphological and mineralogical examinations.