In the USDA soil taxonomy, many of them belong to the Aqualfs, Aquults, Aquents, Aquepts and Aquolls.
They are developed in a wide variety of unconsolidated materials like glacial till, and loamy aeolian, alluvial and colluvial deposits and physically weathered siltstone.
Stagnosols occur on flat to gently sloping land in cool temperate to subtropical regions with humid to perhumid climate conditions.
The agricultural suitability of Stagnosols is limited because of their oxygen deficiency resulting from stagnating water above a dense subsoil.
For the greater part in humid to perhumid temperate regions of West and Central Europe, North America, southeast Australia and Argentina.