Maya and WRB Soil Classification in Yucatan, Mexico: Differences and Similarities

Table 8

Comparison between the descriptions of the soils found in the municipality of Hocabá, Yucatán, México, and those presented in others studies.

Maya name*	Aguilera (1958) [31]	Duch (1988, 1991) [15, 16]	This study
K’ankab	Light red, deep soils	Reddish brown color. Found it in plain terrains	Red soil
Boxlu’um	—	Black color	Black or dark soil
Puslu’um	—	Remarkable less amount of rock fragments than Boxlu’um	Black soil, soft, with no rock fragments. It dries out quickly
Ch’ich’lu’um	—	Very hard and gravel aggregates	Soil with abundant amount of gravels
Muluch buk’tun	—	—	Soil with a lot of rock fragments
Ek’lu’um	Organic soil on calcareous rock (Ek’lu’um Tsek’el)	—	Black soil
Ch’och’ol	Soil with calcareous rocks along profile	Soil with abundant rock fragments on the surface	Soil under piled rock fragments
Tsek’el	Calcareous rock with a thin layer of soil	Shallow soil with abundant rock fragments	Soil with abundant rock fragments
Chaltun	Soil over laja rock	Soil with calcareous armour exposed	Black shallow soil. with cracked or holed rock
Chaklu’um	—	Soil more red than K’ankab	Dark red soil
Haylu’um	—	—	Very shallow soil. Less than 10 cm depth

∗Writing of the Maya names is according to the Porrúa dictionary [32].