Offers a perspective on soils as earth materials, which establishes a pedological hierarchy of materials, processes and factors, and their rationalization in terms of plate tectonics. The book should interest soil and earth scientists.Part 1 The processes of soil formation and the resulting soil materials: weathering and leaching; new mineral formation and inheritance; bioturbation; rainwash; aeolian processes; soil creep. Part 2 The distribution of soil material: the pedological hierarchy; the soils of a continental plate centre - Australia, Africa; soils of other continental plate centres; the soil materials of continental plate margins.