chernozem
CHER-noh-zem
A deep, dark, extraordinarily fertile soil formed under grassland in temperate continental climates — the legendary "black earth" of the Ukrainian and Russian steppes, the American Great Plains, and the Argentine Pampas. Chernozem is black because it is saturated with humus, built up over millennia by the annual growth and death of deep-rooted grasses. The topsoil can be three feet deep or more. It is the richest agricultural soil on earth, and the breadbaskets of the world sit on it.
Etymology
Russian — chernyi (black) + zemlya (earth). Black earth. The word was introduced to Western science by Russian pedologist Vasily Dokuchaev in the 1870s, whose study of chernozem laid the foundation for modern soil science.
Notes
Dokuchaev's 1883 monograph on chernozem is considered the founding document of pedology — the scientific study of soils.
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