Soils of Saipan — M cCracken 
111 
SUMMARY 
Saipan Island, 48 square miles in area, is 
located in the center of the Mariana Islands 
in the western Pacific Ocean, well within the 
zone of tropical climates. Mean annual rain- 
fall is about 80 inches with a weak dry season. 
Mean monthly temperatures range from 82 
to 86°F. 
Limestones underlie about two thirds of the 
soils of the island, volcanic rocks one third. 
Deep, well-drained upland soils are rather mi- 
nor in area, as a shallow stony soil and rough 
stonyland on limestone make up 29 and 
36 per cent, respectively, of the surface area 
of Saipan. 
Though of limited occurrence, the deep 
upland soils pose interesting problems in soil 
genesis and classification. They are lacking 
in sesquioxide concentrations and silica de- 
pletion and possess features, such as plas- 
ticity and firmness, which do not conform 
to the criteria of latosols. They are provision- 
ally termed latosolic intergrades. 
Laboratory analyses of samples of Saipan 
soils are currently in progress. 
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