FORMATION OF SOIL AND THEIR TYPES

 On the basis of geological origin of their sediments, soil can be divided into:

a) Physical weathering

b) Chemical weathering

 A ) physical weathering: is the process by which rocks are broken into smaller and smaller pieces by physical forces, including water, wind, ocean waves ,glacier ice, frost, and expansion and contraction caused by the gain and loss of heat.

B) Chemical weathering: is the process of chemical decomposition of the original rock. In the case of physical weathering , the rock breaks into smaller smaller pieces with-out a change in its chemical composition.

However , in chemical weathering , the original material may be changed to something entirely different.

For example: the chemical weathering of feldspar Can produce clay minerals.

Most rock weathering is a combination of mechanical and chemical weathering.

Transportation and deposition of soil

a) Transported soils: soil produced by the weathering of rocks can be transported by physical process to other places, such resulting soil deposits are called transported soils.

b) Residual soil: some soils may stay where they are formed and cover the rock surface from which they derive. Such soil deposits are residual soils.

Q) what types of soils are usually produced by the different weathering and transported process?

 

Transported soils can be sub- divided into five major categories based on the

transporting agents:

1)gravity transported soil

2) lacustrine (lake) deposits

3) alluvial -soil deposited by running water

4)glacial deposited by glacier

5) aeolian deposited by the wind

examples of transported soil are:

Loess --wind blown deposit with very uniform fine silt particles

tuff -fine grained slightly cemented volcanic ash

Glacial till –heterogeneous mixture of boulders, gravel, sand, silt, and clay

Varved clay-alternate layer of silt and clay deposited in fresh water glacial lakes

Marl -vary fine grained soil of marine origin

Peat -a highly aoganic soil consisting almost entirely of vegetable matter in varying stages of decomposition, fibrous, brown to black in colour and highly compressible.

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