January 23, 2025

soils continue forward

audio essays are back!

In this issue:

• a rocky soil profile

• an essay about change (with audio version!)

• a book recommendation

• a slow-moving sketchbook spread

FROM THE AUTHOR

Hello, my friends.

I have been thinking a lot about how to make sense of change lately. Experiencing change is universal, and perhaps defines this current moment of modernity. Maybe change is all there ever really is.

I think there are things soils can teach us about how we relate to change both within ourselves and in the world around us. I let my mind float around this idea in today's feature essay. I would love to hear if it resonated with you.

This year, I plan to continue writing to you once a month, sometimes more. I have no set schedule and no big goals to announce. I just want to create a place for us to enjoy soils together. If you know someone who might want to share in the soil joy this year, please invite them to join us!

I brought back the audio essay format this month! If you like the audio version of my essays, reply to this email and let me know. You can subscribe to wonder of soil on spotify or look for it in your favorite podcast app.

Thank you for taking the time to care about soil today.

Take care and stay curious,

Yamina

PROFILES

During a field visit to a local marine terrace research site last week, we came across this cobbly road cut. Based on other holes we have dug in the area, we noticed that the concentration of rocks in the surface soil is quite variable across the terrace. This road cut hints at the dynamic nature of this area where erosion and soil movement continue to shape the landform.

Share your recent soil profile sightings with us! Email your photo to wonderofsoil@outlook.com with a caption that includes a general location and I might feature it in a future issue.

SOILS CONTINUE FORWARD

audio version of this essay here

I have an obsession with tiny pencils. You can find me organizing my colored pencils by length anytime I sit down to draw. I'll scratch around in my sketchbook, sharpen a few pencils, and then re-sort them. There is something satisfying about watching my pencils get shorter. It's a visual reminder of time spent doing something I enjoy. The drawings themselves are much less important to me than the experience of drawing something.

It is not my natural tendency to attend to the process - it is something I practice. Creating art, and celebrating using up my pencils, helps me find purpose in the process, not the outcome. It is the same reason I like burning taper candles, reading a physical book, or crocheting a coaster. When I can see the passage of time in front of me I am better able to focus on the present.

I am trying to find meaning in the forward progress of time and accept impermanence. I look to soils for guidance. Soil formation is a process that happens over time, but it is not just one thing. Rather, soil formation represents a collection of processes that occur together to create the unique soils we observe in nature.

Scientists conceptualize the many processes that are involved in a soil's development as additions, losses, translocations, and transformations. These four types of processes control the properties of the soil. That is to say, what happens around and within a soil impacts how it looks, feels, and behaves. When we observe a soil in nature, we only see the outcome of these changes. It is rare that we are able to watch the passage of soil time directly.

Not all soil properties¹ change in the same way. Some properties change slowly and steadily over time. For example, organic matter accumulates in soils as plant roots grow, die, decompose, and get incorporated into the soil profile. Over time, organic matter changes the soil color by darkening surface soil horizons.

Other properties change episodically, with intense periods of activity followed by periods of stagnation. Some processes are reversible, whereas others are not. The natural shapes we find in soils develop over time as clays weather from rocks and help soil particles stick together in clumps. But a soil's structure isn't permanent. Clumps of soil can be broken and reshaped, as often happens when we manipulate soils for agriculture.

Some properties are more dynamic when a soil is "young"², whereas others develop later on as a soil ages. Take weathering, for example. Minerals that are more easily broken down by chemical weathering will decrease in abundance earlier on in a soil's development (e.g. when the soil is "young"). Over time, more resistant minerals will also begin to weather. The abundance of different minerals will thus change through the course of a soil's existence.

Soils come into being because a diverse suite of processes interact to create something truly one of a kind. We have come up with ways to put soils into categories based on similar properties, but no two soils are exactly the same. Each new soil we encounter is a friend with a history and context that, if we listen carefully, we can learn a lot about.

This is how life is, isn’t it? We emerge as unique humans when our experiences shape the way we engage with the world. We get to know other people by learning how their history informs their present. Sometimes our life changes so slowly over time that if we don't make the effort to notice, we could miss it altogether. We might wake up one day and find ourselves in a completely different stage of life, wondering how we got here. Other times, change seems to happen so quickly it feels instantaneous. Change like this feels so immediate that we can describe life before and after the event.

The trajectory of soil formation is always forward, building on the history that came before. That doesn't necessarily mean soils are always physically expanding in space. In some cases, erosion and losses of soil material exceed inputs and the volume of soil decreases. Even through the ups and downs, soils always continue forward.

Soils remind me that experiencing change is what it means to exist on this planet. Change comes in many shapes and sizes. Some changes are reversible, others aren’t. And that just has to be okay.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I was delighted the entire time I was reading The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. If you share my love of notebooks, note-taking, and unpacking how we know what we know, you too will love this book. The short chapters weave together a story of the notebook as a tool that shaped the world we live in today. I encourage you to add it to your to-read list.

FROM THE SKETCHBOOK

I have always felt connected to the slow, intentional movement of snails. Lately, I have been learning more about Mollusca and practicing identifying shells at the beach. This sketchbook spread is based on a reference photo of Helicina Margarite in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Shells of North America.

If you enjoyed this issue of soil mail, please share it with a friend!