The generation of soil over sandstones in a periglacial environment

The work examines the chemical and physical processes that are likely to have contributed to forming the soil thickness across the Sherwood Sandstone outcrop in Nottinghamshire, England, UK. The similarity in the extent of chemical weathering across the interface of the loosely compacted sand that forms the soil and regolith and the non-durable rock underneath suggests that physical weathering processes are required as the final part of the weathering process, essential to breaking the clay cement that maintains the structural integrity of the non-durable rock. With prior knowledge that the outcrop was the input point for water currently in the aquifer with ages between 10 and 35,000 a, periglacial processes such as ‘frost cracking’ and ‘active zone development’ are considered major influences on soil thickness.