Effect Of Toposequence On Morphological Characteristics Of Soils From Alagar Hills Toe Slope To Vaigai River Basin, Madurai District, Tamilnadu , India

In Madurai North taluk, Madurai district, TamilNadu , India from Alagar hill's toe slope near Ayathampatty to Vaigai river's alluvial fan near Vandiyur, ten different soil profile sites were fixed approximately at 2 km intervals and 2 pedons in each site were dug up to 50 m apart, examined and morphological properties were described. The data revealed that the development of pedon in different lands is as follows. The sites 1, 2 and 3 fall under foot hill 4, 5 and 6 are distributed in basin position, while the sites 7 and 8 occupy basin rim position and the sites 9 and 10 are in alluvial fan. The solum depth is a function of slope generally. The reddish colour is dominant in upper topography up to basin position. But the alluvial fan position soil is pale yellow to olive. Based on the soil properties, the pedon development in the transect follows the order: Basin> upper terrace > basin rim > lower terrace > foot hill > alluvial fan. The morphological details reveal that the solum depth increases with decreasing elevation from foot hill to alluvial fan position