Soil great group

Haplargid

Of the Argid suborder; it It is the simplest of the suborder: it does not have a clay horizon or any other feature that places it in a more specific group..

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.
SuborderArgidAridisol with a clay accumulation horizon, inherited from a more humid past climate.
Great groupHaplargidWithin the Argid suborder, it It is the simplest of the suborder: it does not have a clay horizon or any other feature that places it in a more specific group..

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
Moderate
Typical effective depth
85 cm

Where it is found

According to the 1:500.000 national map, it covers about 9.431.975 ha, spread over 59 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 Negro3.321.399 ha
Santa Cruz2.596.745 ha
Chubut2.489.521 ha
La Rioja434.154 ha
Buenos Aires315.236 ha
Neuquén120.772 ha
Catamarca54.978 ha
Córdoba36.041 ha
Jujuy22.904 ha
Salta18.744 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 33.5 (low); half of the units fall between 17 and 48.

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