Lake Urmia (LU) drying up and withdrawal of its shores resulted in remaining of vast saline lands around it. The study of soils as the indicator of the environmental condition, in which they have developed, can provide valuable information about the past climate of the area. Therefore, the goals of this research was to investigate the LU expansion-recession episodes through recorded evidences in the evolved soils. Two transects perpendicular to LU were studied in the western and southeastern shores. Several soil pedons based on the variations in the geomorphic surfaces and landscape, were described and sampled down to a depth of two meters. Micromorphological and mineralogical studies were also done for some diagnostic horizons. Results showed that the existence of buried soils as well as textural discontinuities in some of the studied soil pedons are the indicators of LU several fluctuations due to climatic changes, showing the greater extension of LU in the past than that of 1998. The existence of buried soils showed that these regions had been exposed during different time periods, before further burial by lacustrine sediments. In some of the pedons, the upper soils were much more evolved than their underneath buried horizons while in some others, more evolved buried horizons than their upper soils were observed indicating their longer exposure time to the pedogenesis processes prior to their burial. Micromorphological study of buried Bk, revealed that it is highly pedal and highly separated horizon with calcite coatings and infillings. Present study also revealed that LU recession has happened during several episodes which has also coincided with several expansions and consequent sedimentations, through which, soil evolution and development has been affected as a consequence of climate change during the late Quaternary.
