Cutans are the modification of the soil texture, or soil structure, at natural surfaces (particle, pore, or ped) in soil materials due to

illuviation Illuvium is material displaced across a soil profile, from one layer to another one, by the action of rainwater. The removal of material from a soil layer is called eluviation. The transport of the material may be either mechanical or chemical. The ...

. Cutans are oriented deposits which can be composed of any of the component substances of the soil material. Cutans are common features in soil and represent focuses of chemical and biological reactions. Cutans may include

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

skins or coatings of

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

sesquioxide A sesquioxide is an oxide of an element (or radical), where the ratio between the number of atoms of that element and the number of atoms of oxygen is 2:3. For example, aluminium oxide and phosphorus(III) oxide are sesquioxides. Many sesquioxid ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

, ferromanganese,

soil organic matter Soil organic matter (SOM) is the organic matter component of soil, consisting of plant and animal detritus at various stages of decomposition, cells and tissues of soil microbes, and substances that soil microbes synthesize. SOM provides numerous b ...

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...

.{{cite web , url = http://home.entouch.net/dmd/paleosol.htm , title = Paleosols , author = Jonathan Clark , accessdate = 2006-10-17 , url-status = dead , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20061026205314/http://home.entouch.net/dmd/paleosol.htm , archivedate = 2006-10-26 Clay skins are also called argillans, and

soil horizons A soil horizon is a layer parallel to the soil surface whose physical, chemical and biological characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath. Horizons are defined in many cases by obvious physical features, mainly colour and texture. ...

with sufficient clay illuviation are termed argillic horizons.

Significance

Cutans provide physical evidence, observable in the field, as to the degree and nature of pedogenesis. The ability to assess cutans is a core skill in

soil morphology Soil morphology is the study of the formation and description of soil types within various soil horizons. C.F. Marbut championed reliance on soil morphology instead of on theories of pedogenesis for soil classification because theories of soil gen ...

and

paleopedology Paleopedology (palaeopedology in the United Kingdom) is the discipline that studies soils of past geological eras, from quite recent (Quaternary) to the earliest periods of the Earth's history. Paleopedology can be seen either as a branch of soil s ...

References

Pedology Sedimentology

Significance

See also

References