Topography being a pedogenic factor influences the physico-chemical and biological properties of soil profiles. Besides, the magnetic characteristics of soil profiles may also be varied, as iron minerals in soils are strongly redox sensitive. However, hardly any study has been reported from the topographic implication on the magnetic characteristics of soils to date. Hence, the present study aims to delineate the influence of topography on the in-situ soil profiles developed on hill topography by studying their rock magnetic properties.

Two soil profiles each, formed at different altitudes of the two hills named Doddabathi Siddeshwara (14.58° N; 75.66° E) with peak ~650 m above mean sea level (AMSL) and Elimale (12.5° N; 75.5° E) with peak ~200 m AMSL were chosen for the investigation. Rock magnetic measurements were carried out on soil samples; Rock Magnetism is a geophysical technique applied on environmental samples such as rocks, soils, dust and sediments for determining their intrinsic magnetic properties namely, magnetic susceptibility, anhysteretic remanent magnetization and isothermal remanent magnetisation. These intrinsic magnetic properties are the result of concentration, mineralogy and grain-size of magnetic minerals present in the samples that are unique for every environmental condition. Hence, determination of rock magnetic properties of environmental samples leads to the corresponding environmental set-up in which the samples are formed. Particle size and organic matter content were also estimated to support the rock magnetic interpretation. Based on the investigation it was concluded that topography has indeed influenced the magnetic properties of soil profiles of the hills, irrespective of rainfall and organic matter content. Both depletion in magnetic mineral concentration and coarsening of magnetic grains towards the profile-top were observed in all the soil profiles; this indicates the effect of soil erosion. The decrease in the magnetic properties of hill-top soil profiles was determined to be dominantly due to the removal of finer pedogenic magnetic minerals. Whereas the lowered magnetic characteristics of the hill-bottom soil profiles were attributed to the mixing of bulk materials eroded from higher elevations. Meanwhile, the greater difference in magnetic properties of Doddabathi soil profiles than that of Elimale was attributed to the combined effect of slope-angle and lateral-distance between their respective hill-top and -bottom profiles. Thus, exploring the applicability of rock magnetism to address the spatial-spread of magnetic minerals on hill topography, the study confirms the suitability of the technique to be used as a proxy for the same.

地形是造成土壤成因的因素，会影响土壤剖面的物理化学和生物学特性。此外，土壤中的铁矿物质对氧化还原反应非常敏感，因此土壤剖面的磁特性也可能会发生变化。然而，迄今为止，几乎没有任何关于地形对土壤磁特性的研究报道。因此，本研究旨在通过研究岩石的岩石磁特性来描述地形对山地地形上发育的原位土壤剖面的影响。

两个土壤剖面分别形成在两个山丘的不同海拔上，分别为Doddabathi Siddeshwara（北纬14.58°； 75.66°E），最高峰位于平均海平面（AMSL）约650 m以上，而Elimale（北纬12.5°； E 75.5°）。选择〜200 m AMSL进行调查。在土壤样品上进行了岩石磁测量；岩石磁性是一种地球物理技术，应用于环境样本（例如岩石，土壤，灰尘和沉积物），以确定其固有的磁性，即磁化率，磁滞剩磁和等温剩磁。这些固有的磁性是样品中每种环境条件下独特的磁性矿物的浓度，矿物学和晶粒度的结果。因此，确定环境样品的岩石磁性能会导致形成样品的相应环境设置。还估计了颗粒大小和有机质含量以支持岩石的磁性解释。根据调查得出的结论是，地形确实影响了丘陵土壤剖面的磁性，而与降雨和有机质含量无关。在所有土壤剖面中都观察到了磁性矿物质浓度的减少和朝向剖面顶部的磁性晶粒的粗化；这表明了水土流失的影响。确定山顶土壤剖面的磁性降低主要是由于去除了较细的成岩磁性矿物。丘陵土壤剖面的磁特性降低归因于从高海拔侵蚀的散装物料的混合。同时，Doddabathi土壤剖面的磁性比Elimale的磁性更大，这归因于倾斜角和侧向的共同作用。-它们各自的山顶和底面轮廓之间的距离。因此，通过探索岩石磁性解决山丘地形上磁性矿物空间分布的适用性，这项研究证实了该技术可替代该技术的适用性。