Reisdual soil and the atmosphere influence
If you are including the early history of the earth, study of regolith from the Archean period has been used to indicate the oxidation state of the atmosphere. Different weathering products form, depending on the amount of oxygen in the air and dissolved in infiltrating rainwater. So the residual soil chemical and isotopic composition changed when the atmosphere became oxic. There are a few locations in South Africa, Canada, and probably other places where these soils were buried and preserved, (e.g. by lava flows near Flin Flon Manitoba Canada).