' I EXPANDED PROGRAM OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE No. 2017 Report to the Government of CHILE THE VOLCANIC ASH SOILS OF CHILE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ROMEM965 -"'^ .Y--~ - -V^^-.. -r~ ' y Report No. 2017 Report CHT/TE/LA Scanned from original by ISRIC - World Soil Information, as ICSU World Data Centre for Soils. The purpose is to make a safe depository for endangered documents and to make the accrued information available for consultation, following Fair Use Guidelines. Every effort is taken to respect Copyright of the materials within the archives where the identification of the Copyright holder is clear and, where feasible, to contact the originators. For questions please contact
[email protected] indicating the item reference number concerned. REPORT TO THE GOVERNMENT OP CHILE on THE VOLCANIC ASH SOILS OP CHILE Charles A. Wright POOL ANL AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OP THE UNITEL NATIONS ROME, 1965 266I7/C 51 iß - iii - TABLE OP CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 RECOMMENDATIONS 1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 3 The nature and composition of volcanic landscapes 3 Vbloanio ash as a soil forming parent material 5 The distribution of voloanic ash soils in Chile 7 Nomenclature used in this report 11 A. ANDOSOLS OF CHILE» GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS, FORMATIVE ENVIRONMENT, AND MAIN KINDS OF SOIL 11 1. TRUMAO SOILS 11 General characteristics 11 The formative environment 13 ÈS (i) Climate 13 (ii) Topography 13 (iii) Parent materials 13 (iv) Natural plant cover 14 (o) The main kinds of trumao soils ' 14 2. NADI SOILS 16 General characteristics 16 The formative environment 16 tö (i) Climat* 16 (ii) Topograph? and parent materials 17 (iii) Natural plant cover 18 B.