page_title: Canadian system of soil classification
section_title: Cryosolic Order
hierarchical_section_title: Canadian system of soil classification / Orders / Cryosolic Order
caption_attribution_description: English: Organic soil monolith
context_page_description: The Canadian System of Soil Classification is more closely related to the American system than any other, but they differ in several ways. The Canadian system is designed to cover only Canadian soils. The Canadian system dispenses with the sub-order hierarchical level. Solonetzic and Gleysolic soils are differentiated at the order level.
context_section_description: These soils have permafrost (permanently frozen material) within one metre of the surface (2 m if the soil is strongly cryoturbated; i.e., disturbed by frost action). As permafrost is a barrier to roots and water, the active layer (seasonally thawed material) above it may become a saturated, semifluid material in spring. Commonly the permafrost layer near the surface contains abundant ice. Melting of ice and frozen materials, resulting from disturbance of the surface vegetation (boreal forest or tundra), may cause slumping of the soil and disruption of roads, pipelines and buildings. Cryosolic soils, occupying about 3 672 000 km² (about 40%) of Canada's land area, are dominant in much of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and occur in northern areas of all but the Atlantic provinces (excluding Labrador).
  The order and its 3 great groups were defined in 1973, after soil and terrain surveys in the Mackenzie Valley yielded new knowledge about the properties, genesis and significance of these soils. Turbic Cryosols have a patterned surface (hummocks, stone nets, etc.) and mixed horizons or other evidence of cryoturbation. Static Cryosols lack marked evidence of cryoturbation; they are associated with sandy or gravelly materials. Organic Cryosols are composed dominantly of organic materials (e.g., peat). Because organic material acts as an insulator, Organic Cryosols occur farther south than the boundary of continuous permafrost.
caption: Organic soil monolith
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