Another way to view soils is that they are environmental products that are molded over a period of time from the materials available to them. The large amount of influences that effect the formation of soils can be simplified to five main factors: climate, organisms, topographic relief, parent material, and time (Jenny 1941; Buol et al. 1997). These five factors can be easily remembered using the acronym 'CLORPT'. These categories are useful for mentally considering that aspects that occurred during the formation of a soil or paleosol. More importantly however, CLORPT allows for a theoretical framework when creating natural experiments for the study of soil formation. (Retallack 2001)