“土层”常见的英文表达是 soil layer。
“soil”意为“土壤;土地” ,“layer”表示“层;层次” ,二者组合“soil layer”就准确地表达了“土层”这一概念。例如:The archaeologists carefully excavated each soil layer.(考古学家仔细地挖掘每一层土层 。)