Arizona Soils for Dummies

Arizona soils map

Like the theme song of "Ghostbusters" says, "Who you gonna call?" In this case, we'd like to know "What Type of Soil Does Arizona Have?": are we gonna call someone with an MA in English Literature? Oh, hell to the no! We're gonna call someone who actually knows something about soil, other than "it's dirty." That pretty much leaves out Dannah Swift, proud possessor of said MA, who attempted to answer the very same question for eHow (Leaf Group has, for reasons unknown, since moved it to Hunker.com). From the get-go it's crystal clear that Dannah is digging a deeper hole with every paragraph...

Take, for instance, Swift's introduction: she exposes her ignorance of soil chemistry almost immediately:

"Almost every soil type is found in Arizona, with the exception of tropical soils. Arizona soils have a lot of clay and are very alkaline as a result. Beneath the surface soil there is often a very hard-to-penetrate layer called caliche."

No, Dannah, clay does not make soil alkaline; high levels of sodium, calcium and magnesium make soil alkaline. She actually alluded to the calcium in Arizona soils in the next sentence: caliche is mostly calcium carbonate. Swift goes on to babble about "Another common soil type... called Casa Grande [that] probably covers several million acres of central and southwestern Arizona," in the process revealing that she has no earthly idea what she's talking about. Had she been able to understand her chief reference, Dannah might have realized that Casa Grande is not a soil "type," it is the formal name of a group of related soils. Such is the ignorance of the liberal arts major...

Swift has other comprehension problems as well when it comes to science-y bits...

• "Casa Grande [soil] has... a lot of salt..." Ummm, no, some Arizona surface soils may have high salt content after decades of the evaporation of irrigation water.
• "Caliche... is a layer of soil that can be up to 6 feet deep..." We think you meant six feet thick, Dannah.
• "Organic matter is important because it helps the soil hold water and nutrients for the plants." Sort of: organic matter doesn't help "soil hold... nutrients,", it is the nutrients!

We don't know about others, but it's our preference that the people who think they are imparting information to readers on the internet actually know what they are talking about instead of doing a lousy job of rewording information from more accurate sources. We have no problem with handing Swift today's Dumbass of the Day award for her hack job of "information."

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