Soil pedogenesis depends on five factors climate, biota, relief, parent material, and time. The goal of this paper is to go over the five factors and cover some of the soils created in the Imperial County. The Imperial County is located in South-Eastern California (latitude:33.04°N longitude:115.35°W) and borders both Arizona and Mexico. The climate is arid with average temperature ranges of 12-36C° (max temps above 45°C possible) and an average of 75mm/year precipitation (2.95in./year). Being in an arid desert biota is minimal with cacti and shrubs dominating the landscape. The relief in the valley plays a key role in the pedogenesis, there are minimal slopes in the valley basin with a low elevation of 235 feet below sea level. The county border with San Diego County represents the highest elevation of 4553 ft. The mountains jut out of the valley creating an immense slope in this area.…show more content… In geological time the basin has experienced very recent parent material deposition occurring throughout the holocene. The Colorado River used to flow into the valley, creating a delta which would fill the valley with sediment. As the slopes are so low this pattern would alternate between flowing into the valley and flowing into the ocean. When the river flowed to the ocean the arid climate would dry out the deposited material, the climate also caused the clays and silt to go under little soil development. The river cycled back and forth for 1,000’s of years with the remnants of the last massive lake being what is left of the Salton Sea. This recurring process teamed with the arid climate created the deep undeveloped soil (Fluvent Entisols) that predominate the