Sandy soils, as a group of soils, are unique soils. They have a specific set of physical and chemical soil properties that include rapid infiltration and conductivity, susceptibility to drought and erosion by wind, and low ability to hold water and nutrients. Sandy soils have a sandy or loamy sand texture in the fine-earth (<2 mm) fraction. They occur extensively in Florida, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We present a conceptual thickness model for sandy soils with four depth classes: 1. soils that are sandy throughout the upper 100 cm, 2. soils that contain a sandy layer that is 50 cm or more thick over a finer-textured layer, 3. soils that have a fine-textured layer 50 cm or less over a sandy layer, and 4. soils that are sandy throughout but that are underlain by bedrock at a depth of 50 cm or less. These four classes include 2054 soil series covering nearly 600,000 km² or 8% of the conterminous USA. There is a wide range of parent materials, but most sandy soils are formed in aeolian, marine, and outwash deposits and sandy soils occur mainly in dunes and coastal and outwash plains. Nearly three-quarters of the sandy soil area are over 100 cm deep. Sandy soils are contained primarily in the Entisol order (48% of soils on area basis), followed by Spodosols (15%) and Ultisols (13%). Nearly two-thirds of sandy soils occur in nine great groups, including Ustipsamments (12%), Torripsamments (10%), Udipsamments (7%), Quartzipsamments (7%), Haplorthods (6%), Alaquods (6%), Paleudults (5%), Kandiudults (4%), and Psammaquents (3%). As nearly half are Entisols, only 24% of the sandy soils have a diagnostic subsurface horizon. Argillic and spodic horizons occur in 18% and 13% of the soils, respectively. There is concern regarding climate change and erosion of beaches, particularly in Florida and California, the influence of sand mining on flooding in Texas, and the impact of sand mining on dunes in Michigan.

沙质土壤作为一组土壤，是独特的土壤。它们具有一组特定的物理和化学土壤特性，包括快速的渗透和传导性，易受干旱和风蚀的侵蚀以及保持水分和养分的能力低。沙土的细土部分（<2毫米）具有沙质或壤质沙质感。它们广泛分布在佛罗里达州，内布拉斯加州，密歇根州，德克萨斯州，乔治亚州，威斯康星州和明尼苏达州。我们为四个深度级别的沙质土壤提供了一个概念性的厚度模型：1.在整个上部100 cm处为沙质的土壤； 2。细结构层上包含50 cm或更厚的沙层的土壤； 3。 4.在沙层上具有50厘米或以下的细纹理层的土壤； 4.整个沙地，但在50厘米或以下深度的基岩层下的土壤。²或美国本土的8％。母体材料种类繁多，但是大多数沙质土壤形成于风沙，海洋和冲积沉积物中，而沙质土壤主要发生在沙丘，沿海和冲积平原上。接近四分之三的沙质土壤深度超过100厘米。沙质土壤主要以Entisol顺序（按面积计占土壤的48％）包含，其次是Spodosols（占15％）和Ultisols（占13％）。将近三分之二的沙土分布在九个大类中，其中包括Ustipsamments（12％），Torripsamments（10％），Udipsamments（7％），Quartzipsamments（7％），Haplorthods（6％），Alaquods（6％）， Paleudults（5％），Kandududults（4％）和Pammamouss（3％）。由于近一半为Entisols，只有24％的沙质土壤具有可诊断的地下层位。土层和偶层层分别发生在18％和13％的土壤中。