In pedology, the study of soil formation and classification, ancient soil found in the geologic record is called a paleosol, material formed in the distant past on what was then the surface.
A relict paleosol is still found on the surface, and yet is known to have been formed under conditions radically different from the present climate and topography.
For example, serpentinite is a kind of rock formed in a process called serpentinization, in which a host mineral produces a pseudomorph, and the original mineral is eventually replaced and/or destroyed, but is still present until the process is complete.
In a Scandinavian context, this is often meant to imply that relict landforms were formed before the last glaciation and survived it under cold-based parts of the ice sheet.
[4] Climatic geomorphologist Julius Büdel estimated that 95% of mid-latitude landforms are relict.