Has anyone seen relict or current mollic epipedons in areas thought to have aridic soil moisture regimes, or azonal mollic epipedons?
1. Aridic moisture regimes have desert vegetation or sparse vegetation and do not appear to have site conditions (favorable aspect, high water table, or concave landform that collects extra runoff) that would give it more favorable local moisture conditions. A relict mollic would be one that occurs in an aridic regime (with vegetation and site conditions that supports being aridic) but likely formed during an earlier part of the Holocene or late Pleistocene when the moisture regime was wetter than now.
2. A current mollic is one that has aridic moisture regime now and likely formed under aridic conditions.
3. An azonal mollic is one that exists within an aridic region but formed ion a favorable site that has better site conditions (favorable aspect, high water table, or concave landform that collects extra runoff) and has an ustic or xeric soil moisture regime (in other words, an oasis of better site conditions).
