Soil great group

Torriortent

Of the Ortent suborder; it It has an arid climate (torric moisture regime).

What the name says

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

Taxonomic orderEntisolSoil without diagnostic horizons, or almost: recently deposited material (sand, alluvium) or on which the climate did not have time to act.
SuborderOrtentEntisol on material that is neither sandy nor alluvial: eroded slopes, rock, recent sediments.
Great groupTorriortentWithin the Ortent suborder, it It has an arid climate (torric moisture regime).

What it means for farming

Very variable. The sandy ones (Psamentes) retain little water and blow away; alluvial ones (Fluventes) can be good but they flood; the shallow ones on rock (lithic) are barely useful for grazing.

The most widespread soil of extra-Andean Patagonia and the arid west: stony or sandy, without development, under steppe.

Most common surface texture
Loamy sand
Most common drainage
Well drained
Typical effective depth
100 cm

Where it is found

According to the 1:500.000 national map, it covers about 22.871.009 ha, spread over 125 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
La Rioja3.847.729 ha
San Juan3.296.469 ha
Mendoza2.624.050 ha
Río Negro1.999.701 ha
San Luis1.892.907 ha
Chubut1.826.760 ha
Neuquén1.744.376 ha
Santa Cruz1.637.287 ha
Catamarca1.633.096 ha
Salta946.322 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 12 (very low); half of the units fall between 5 and 25.

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