Soil taxonomy developed by United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series.

Example of classification of a soil type

Order: Entisols

Suborder: Fluvents

Great Group: Torrifluvents

Subgroup: Typic Torrifluvents

Family: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, Typic Torrifluvents

Series: Jocity, Youngston.

Another Example

Order: Alfisols

Suborder: Xeralfs

Great Group: Durixeralfs

Subgroup: Abruptic Durixeralfs

Family: Fine, Mixed, Active, thermic Abruptic Durixeralfs

Series: San Joaquin

Link to Official Series Description: http://ortho.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/osd/dat/S/SAN_JOAQUIN.html

Orders

• Alfisols
• Andisols
• Aridisols
• Entisols
• Gelisols
• Histosols
• Inceptisols
• Mollisols
• Oxisols
• Spodosols
• Ultisols
• Vertisols

Related articles

• FAO soil classification
• International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH)
• Soil classification

External links

• USDoA / NRCC soil taxonomy webpage
• Soil taxonomy document
• A Compendium of On-Line Soil Survey Information: Soil Classification Systems