Soil subgroup

Cambortid lítico

It has continuous rock (lithic contact) within 50 cm: it is a shallow soil.

Cambortid 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 Haplocambid.

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 groupCambortidWithin the Ortid suborder, it has only one cambic horizon: incipient development, no accumulations.
SubgrouplíticoIt has continuous rock (lithic contact) within 50 cm: it is a shallow soil.

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
Well drained
Typical effective depth
30 cm

Where it is found

According to the 1:500.000 national map, it covers about 760.603 ha, spread over 13 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
Río Negro495.641 ha
Chubut182.193 ha
Jujuy65.748 ha
Salta17.021 ha

Districts where it is most common

How productive it is

Where it is the main soil of the map unit, the productivity index has a median of 7 (very low); half of the units fall between 7 and 7.

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.

Other Cambortid subgroups

Soils it shares map units with

Several soils share each map unit. These are the ones most often found alongside this one: on a property, you will likely find them in the nearby low ground or on the next rise.

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