Soil Maps & Technical Information
United States Geological Survey
Aerial photos often reveal evidence of unsuspected development or manipulation of a site. A great source for this type of information is a topographic map from the United States Geological Survey. Its historical maps date back to 1884, so you can see how a site has changed over time.
National Soil Survey Center (NSSC)
The NSSC works closely with several federal and state agencies, land grant universities, and private entities as part of the National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS). The NCSS produces soil surveys to help people understand soils and their responses to a variety of natural and human influences. A soil survey is a multi-purpose, science-based inventory of the distribution and properties of soils and factors affecting the soil environment, including predictions of soil behavior in urban, agronomic, or natural settings.
USDA NRCS Soil Survey resources →
Web Soil Survey
An interactive USDA tool for mapping soils on a specific property or area. Define an area of interest, view its soil map, and generate a custom report on soil properties. Data can also be downloaded for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS).
TM 3-34.64: Military Soils Engineering
This Army technical manual, which replaced FM 5-410 in 2012, discusses the formation and characteristics of soil and the classification system used by the US Army, along with an overview of systems used by other agencies. It covers compaction and quality control, settlement and shearing resistance, water movement through soils, frost action, and the bearing capacity of soils that serve as foundations, slopes, embankments, dikes, dams, and earth-retaining structures.