Mineral soils conditioned by parent material belong to the Reference Soil Groups set #3 of the WRB reference system. This set includes mineral soils whose formation is conditioned by the particular properties of their parent material (World Soil Resources Report 94, 2001). The set includes 3 Reference Soil Groups. For each soil special explanatory notes are compiled in sub-chapters named Excursus, and include characteristic chemical, physical or environmental (landscape, climate…) features of the respective soil:

• the ANDOSOLS of volcanic regions
  
  • Excursus: volcanic landscapes
    
  • Excursus: bulk density
    
  • Excursus: exchange capacity
    
• the sandy ARENOSOLS of desert areas, beach ridges, inland dunes, areas with highly weathered sandstone, etc.
  
  • Excursus: bulk density
    
• the swelling and shrinking heavy clayey VERTISOLS of backswamps, river basins, lake bottoms, and other areas with a high content of expanding 2:1 lattice clays
  
  • Excursus: clay minerals
    
  • Excursus: gilgai micro-relief
    
  • Excursus: cation exchange capacity
    
  • Excursus: monsoon