First published in 1974, this text has been popular amond soil scientists, geomorphologists, geologists, geographers, and archaeologists. This third edition will retain the popular format, "factors of soil formation," whjile offering a greater number of topics and examples - particularly in the chapters, "Weathering and Soil Development with Time" and "Topography - Soil Relations with Time in Different Climatic Settings." It places greater emphasis on the role of dust in pedogenesis, and includes new data on tropical soil development, global soil-loss relations, neotectonics, and reduction processes. The text discussses field applications such as the use of soils in recognizing climate change, estimating the age of geological depositws, and dealing with environmental problems such as acid rain. "How-to" appendices have been addded, and the section on paleosls has been expanded.