[1] In the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), andisols are known as Andosols.

[2] Because they are generally quite young, andisols typically are very fertile except in cases where phosphorus is easily fixed (this sometimes occurs in the tropics).

Other andisol areas support crops of fruit, maize, tea, coffee or tobacco.

Other areas occur in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya, Italy, Iceland and Hawaiʻi.

Fossil andisols are known from areas far from present-day volcanic activity and have in some cases been dated as far back as the Mesoproterozoic 1.5 billion years ago.