The Soil Survey Staff (2014) defines “shallow” as approximately 2.5 m. These soils occur in shallow freshwater and marine environments, such as ponds, lakes, and the subtidal areas of estuaries and tidal embayments.
Subaqueous soils differ from subaerial, or terrestrial, soils by having perennial water on the soil surface. Significance of Subaqueous Soil Information Sampling, Description, Characterization, and Classification By Mark Stolt, University of Rhode Island, and James Turenne and Maggie Payne, USDA-NRCS.