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Physical Processes

Eluviation

Biogeochemical and Pedological Processes

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Eluviation is the downward washing-out of fine clay particles, organic matter and soluble minerals from an upper soil horizon as water percolates through it, leaving that horizon visibly paler, coarser-textured and depleted relative to the material it started with. The bleached, ash-grey eluvial horizon typical of podzolized soils in cool, humid, coniferous-forest climates is the clearest visible signature of the process, sitting directly above the darker illuvial horizon where the washed-out material is redeposited.

Facts
Timescale
Years to centuries, over the course of soil profile development. 1
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