The book contains state of the art new research results in micromorphology as well as other disciplines of soil science. It provides very useful up-to-date information for researchers, educators, graduate students interested in microscopic and submicroscopic studies of soils and sediments. In the past, micromorphology has been considered almost solely as a descriptive and interpretative branch of science. Attempts are now made to obtain quantitative data. There has been much progress in applying soil micromorphology in Quaternary geology, in particular identifying and characterizing palaeosols. The new areas for soil micromorphology are soil ecology, materials sciences and archaeology.
