24th December 2008, 12:20 AM
Our Unit purchased some soil colour charts that were not Munsell, but used the Munsell number/letter system, but without the "light greenish grey" type description. The beauty of these is they are totally waterproof, printed on plastic, smaller, and I imagine a fraction of the cost. I don't know, but I suspect we may have imported them from the States when the exchange rate was more favourable. As I do not have one to hand I cannot tell you the make.
If you have one person recording on site, then there is less call for a Munsell, as the main call is to distinguish one soil from another. Once you get more than one person recording, you need an agreed common system. Try writing up urban excavations where more than one recorder was involved. It is truly amazing how the same layer can be described in so many different ways and yet be blatantly the same layer in section, plan and photograph!
If you have one person recording on site, then there is less call for a Munsell, as the main call is to distinguish one soil from another. Once you get more than one person recording, you need an agreed common system. Try writing up urban excavations where more than one recorder was involved. It is truly amazing how the same layer can be described in so many different ways and yet be blatantly the same layer in section, plan and photograph!