THE CLASSIFICATION OF SOME NIGERIAN SOILS

Abstract

This study presents data on soil profile samples from eleven sites in Nigeria, widely distributed from the high rainfall coastal area of sedimentary parent material to the dry northern area where aeolian deposits from the Sahara Desert have been a major soil-forming factor. Weatherable minerals are generally present in the soils formed from crystalline rocks and most of these soils are classified as Alfisols. On the sedimentary rocks and on the ultrabasic crystalline rocks Oxisols have formed. On aeolian parent materials from the Sahara and on the Pleistocene sediments the soils are classified as Inceptosols.