Soil data release of Open-File Report 02-277, collected on marine terraces near Santa Cruz, California in 1981

This data release represents samples collected in 1981 along a series of five marine terraces between Ano Nuevo and Santa Cruz in California as a part of a U.S. Geological Survey project led by Dennis Marchand to study soil chronosequences in the Western United States. These sequential surfaces of soils have similar key elements for development in the slope, climate, vegetation, and parent material, but differ in geologic age. These five variables are known as the soil-forming factors. When the lone soil forming variable between surfaces is time, this forms what is known as a soil chronosequence. These samples are homogeneous in soil order, with all five profiles being classified as Mollisols. The surfaces for these soils have age estimates that range from 65 to 226 kiloyears old and are composed of Tertiary Santa Cruz mudstone and Santa Margarita sandstone. The dataset includes profile-level information, such as sample location and elevation, as well as physical properties of the layers (e.g., texture and particle size analysis). Additionally, pH, extractive chemistry, mineralogy, and analytical chemistry for major elements that was obtained through x-ray fluorescence are included in this dataset. There are also four digitized photos that were taken at various locations within the site area during sample collection. The purpose of this data release is to improve to digital availability of the previously published data from the Open-File Report 02-277 for future studies. The physical samples associated with this dataset are available through the U.S. Geological Survey Soil Sample Archive (https://doi.org/10.5066/P90KTZW4).