Maps of Sandy Soil Areas

[Chip Gaskins]

Is there a site on the web where you can go to get maps of the sandy soil based areas in the country?

[Chris Garrett]

I was going to ask the same thing.  Also, for those with knowledge, could you compare and contrast the sand hills of NC/SC to the sand hills of NE/CO - both quality of golfing terrain and cost of land?

[David Druzisky]

Try http://soils.usda.gov to get to the US Dept of Agriculture conservation service.

DbD

[RJ_Daley]

I had always found that County land planning and zoning offices are best for various maps, like soils, overflights, platte maps of property owners, and topos.  Also, State Highway, DOT or what ever in your particular State.

[Rick Sides]

As a geography teacher, just thought I would throw my two cents in about sandy soil areas.  A lot of land on the east and west coast have sandy areas because the beaches eroded over time and left large sand deposits.  Like Pine Valley, in NJ, it was once covered by the ocean thousands of years ago.  Believe it or not, a lot of the midwest was once also covered by the ocean so places like the Sand Hills of Nebraska have sand because it was once the ocean floor.  So primarily, the US has sandy soil on the coast and in parts of the midwest which was once the ocean floor.

[David Schofield]

In my job, I use the NRCS Web Soil Survey quite a bit.  I don't know how it would work on the "macro" scale that you are likely looking for, however.

http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/

Then click on "Start WSS"

[David_Elvins]

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/users/menke/envdata/quality/map/

This interactive geology map is hard to use but if you know what you are doing it will give good information, not only on sandy soils, but also likely types of sand.

[Chip Gaskins]

Pretty good map of sandy soil areas.

[Dan Kelly]

platte maps

One of the great Freudian tyops.

[Chris Garrett]

Chip,

Great map you provided, and great tool to play around with on the Penn State site.  Thanks for posting it.