Paleosol

Paleosol is a big word that means "old soil". This kind of soil is found in places where there used to be land, but now there is rock or water.

Think of it like this: imagine you had a garden in your backyard a long time ago, but you didn't keep it up so the plants died and the earth got really hard. Now, years later, if someone dug into that ground, they would find bits of the old garden-earth mixed in with the dirt and rocks that had built up over time.

Paleosol is like that old garden-earth. Scientists study it to learn about what the land was like long ago - maybe there used to be a forest or a river there, or maybe it was dry and desert-like. They can even find clues about the plants and animals that used to live in that area.

So when you hear the word paleosol, just remember it means really old dirt that tells a story about the past.