Soil great group

Calciortid

Of the Ortid suborder; it has a calcic horizon: calcium carbonate buildup.

Calciortid is a name from the 1975 taxonomy, which many INTA soil survey maps were made with. The current edition no longer has this group: today it would be classified as Haplocalcid.

What the name says

Soil Taxonomy names are built from parts, and each part says something about the soil. From general to specific:

Taxonomic orderAridisolSoil arid climate: water is lacking most of the year and the profile accumulates what the rain cannot wash away (carbonates, gypsum, salts) or clay from more humid times.
SuborderOrtidAridisol without clay horizon.
Great groupCalciortidWithin the Ortid suborder, it has a calcic horizon: calcium carbonate buildup.

What it means for farming

Without irrigation there is no agriculture: they are soils of native woodland, extensive grazing or, with water, irrigated oases (Mendoza, San Juan, the valleys of the NOA).

Most common surface texture
Loamy sand
Most common drainage
Something Excessive
Typical effective depth
100 cm

Where it is found

According to the 1:500.000 national map, it covers about 8.266.601 ha, spread over 51 districts.

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National map units that list it. The scale is 1:500.000: good for seeing the region, not a single property.

ProvinceArea
Chubut3.202.628 ha
Río Negro2.171.328 ha
Mendoza712.906 ha
La Pampa698.526 ha
Santa Cruz550.839 ha
Neuquén389.817 ha
Buenos Aires255.469 ha
San Luis128.657 ha
Santiago del Estero113.533 ha
Córdoba42.897 ha

Districts where it is most common

It also appears on the detailed maps of: Santiago del Estero.

How productive it is

Where it is the main soil of the map unit, the productivity index has a median of 17 (very low); half of the units fall between 15 and 43.

Land capability

V
VI

class V: 55% · class VI: 45%

Taken from the maps that include this data. A map unit with several soils has a single index, and it is only attributed to the dominant soil.

Subgroups on the maps

The definitions are a plain-language summary of the USDA Keys to Soil Taxonomy. The formal definition includes thickness, color and percentage thresholds that are left out here.

Sources