Re: CULT: Soil types..Loess
- To: i*@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: CULT: Soil types..Loess
- From: "* A* M* <w*@Ra.MsState.Edu>
- Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 20:00:51 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Walter A. Moores" <wam2@Ra.MsState.Edu>
On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, Jeff and Carolyn Walters wrote:
> From: "Jeff and Carolyn Walters" <cwalters@digitalpla.net>
>
> > From: Jan Clark
> > Please explain - what is loess?
>
> Jan,
>
> Loess (from the German loss - there should be an umlaut on the "o", but as
> Arnold mentioned the other day, our keyboards are not so equipped - the
> word means "loose") is a term applied to a type of fine-grained, yellowish
> brown, extremely fertile soil deposited by the wind. Deposits, sometimes up
> to several hundred feet deep occur in various areas of North America,
> Europe, and Asia derived from the vast and persistent dust storms that
> occurred near the margins of the Pleistocene glaciers. Probably something
> that is not so often encountered in the southern continents where massive
> glaciation did not occur.
>
> My dictionary gives the English pronunciation as LOW-iss, like the feminine
> name.
>
> Jeff Walters in northern Utah (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
> cwalters@digitalpla.net
>
The pronunciation locally is one syllable with the 'u' sounding as
it does in lust. Drop the 't' on lust and you have it. This is the third
pronunciation in my dictionary.
According to a chapter on Mississippi geography in the school
textbook YOUR MISSISSIPPI, the loess hills were formed when the windblown
sand and other dust particles carried by the westerly winds were dropped
as these winds met the southern (from the Gulf) and the easterly (from the
Atlantic) winds. These hills start in north central MS and extend
southwest toward the Mississippi River. The bluffs in Vicksburg are quite
scenic and the streets are as steep as they are in San Francisco. These
hills extend farther south and may account for Patrick O'connor naming an
iris FELICIANA HILLS as the hills leave Wilkinson County, MS and enter
West Feliciana Parish, LA.
Walter Moores
Enid Lake, MS 7/8
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