Abstract

In 1998 FAO published the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) and was adopted by International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) as official system for soil correlation. The WRB is now used as basic language among soil scientist to identify, characterize and name major soil types. The aim of the present paper was to classify the soils from the Xth «Los Lagos» Region of Chile according WRB and compare them with the classification already made according to Soil Taxonomy (Soil Survey Staff, 2003). Andosols (WRB) and Andisols (Soil Survey Staff, 2003) showed a 100% correlation. The 75% of the Soil Series were classified as Andosols, mostly associated to huge physiographic features. Thus, Vitric Andosol were associated to the Andean Mountains, Silandic Andosol to the Central Graben and the Aluandic Andosol to the Chiloé island. The Umbrisols associated to the Andean Mountains and also to the Coastal Range correlated to Inceptisols. Cambisols, Acrisols and Luvisols were acceptable correlated to Inceptisols, Ultisols and Alfisols respectively. It is proposed to include the formative element petroduric in the Andosols Reference Group as intergrade to Durisols.