Application of the “standard cell” concept in research on soil formation

The concept of the “standard cell” of a rock, which compares numbers of cations associated with 160 oxygen ions (Barth, 1948) can be applied to the solid material of soils and saprolites as a means of tracing changes in element content at different depths in soil profiles weathered from igneous rocks. The “standard cells” can be derived readily from total silicate analyses of rock and soil materials and can be expressed as chemical formulae or in tables to facilitate comparisons. Standard cells for several layers from each of three profiles from southeast Queensland illustrate the type of information obtained. Standard cells of solum and weathered rock layers of a profile previously studied by mineralogical techniques permit a comparison of inferences about weathering which have been drawn by the two approaches.