| Abstract: | A soil classification based on the genetic principles of Russia's Dokuchayev school is proposed for the tropical setting of Cuba. In view of the heavy degradation of the island's original forest and savanna soils, leaving fully developed soil profiles only in a few areas, such a genetic classification of Cuban soils must incorporate both the few fully developed soils proper and the various types of subsoil, consisting both of parent material and of its products of redeposition. The following types of parent material are distinguished: (a) quartz-allitic-ferritic, on acid crystalline rocks; (b) kaol-inite-allitic-ferritic, on schists; (c) zeolitic, on basic volcanics; (d) ferro-zeolitic, on ultrabasics, and (e) terra rossa, on crystalline limestones. These primary types of parent material, developed on crystalline rocks, have their secondary equivalents on sedimentary rocks. |
