THE PROPERTIES, GENESIS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A MAN-MADE IRON PAN PODZOL NEAR CASTLETOWNBERE, IRELAND

Beneath a layer of artificially deposited peat debris, an eluvial E ho rizon and thin iron pan (Bsm) has developed in the upper part of the A p horizon of a brown podzolic soil (Haplorthod) near Castletownbere, I reland. The thickness of the E horizon and the depth of the pan are di rectly related to the thickness of the layer of peat debris. The origi nal soil (Haplorthod) was strongly podzolized with a significant accum ulation of organic carbon, iron and aluminium in the spodic Bs. The ir on pan of the upper sequum, on the other hand, is rich in iron. This i ron pan seems to have developed as a result of reduction of iron in th e E horizon, transport of divalent Fe2+ cations and precipitation in t he Bsm as Fe-2(OH)(3), after the peat layer was deposited. We conclude that podzolization and iron pan development were fundamentally differ ent processes. The study suggests a fundamental change in the iron pan -blanket peat development sequence previously postulated by palaeoenvi ronmentalists in Ireland.