rainbowgardener wrote:but what you are describing is abuse of the land:
What I am describing is Loess soil which has been deposited for millenia in this part of the world. Brick earth is the name in England. This is how this dirt shows up as dust deposits blown into the yards and houses.
Prevailing winds blow this dust from the Gobi Desert and Eurasia and it is several hundred metres thick here.
When it is dug up, there is nothing there for hundred's of metres in depth. I can see the pits where it is dug up to be used in kilns. It'is lifeless, nothing there.
Abuse of the land only extends to the top layer. If the soil is dead and more fit for making bricks at a depth of 10, 20, 50 metres, then it's the soil.
There are no animals or insects in this dirt all the way down to the bedrock.
This soil is at best pre-subsoil, and at worst nearly sand, and it begins its life that way.
Humans had no hand in the last Ice Age, this deposition of Loess would occur whether humans were present or not. The Gobi Desert would be there regardless of human presence or activity.