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An essay about types of soil
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Soil and rock are the main composition of the planet’s crust. Rock is often considered a consolidated material but soil is described as an unconsolidated remains and deposits of solid particle that have been formed by the breakdown of rocks. Soils can be grouped into two categories depending on the method of deposition. Residual soils have formed from the weathering of rocks and remain at the location of their origin. Residual soils can include particles having a wide range of sizes, shapes and compositions depending on amount and type of weathering and the minerals of parent rock. Transported soils are soils that have been relocated from their original place. Transportation may have resulted from the outcome of gravity, wind, water glaciers or human activities. Transported soil particles are often segregated according to size during the transportation process. The method of transportation and deposition has significant effect on the …show more content…
• Water content: the smaller the moisture in the soil, the greater the soil suction will be, soil suction will hold its maximum value when the soil is free of any moisture (dry). • Plasticity index of soil: soil suction will be greater in a soil which has greater plasticity index than in the one which has lower plasticity index. • History of drying and wetting: soil suction is less during wetting time than it is during drying time. • Soil structure: the size of interstices in a soil depends upon the structure of the soil, change in the formation would lead to change in the size of interstices and thus change the soil suction. • Temperature: temperature changes can change the soil suction, temperature increase would decrease soil tension and result in decrease in suction, and alike, fall in temperature would cause an increase of
the type of sand and the amount of sand. The variable I will change is
If the concentration of sucrose increases, then the mass of the potato will decrease. However, if the concentration of the solution in the beaker is less than that of the potato (such as distilled water), then the mass of the potato will increase. So, as the concentration of sucrose increases the rate of osmosis increases.
What is soil? “Soil is a complex mixture of eroded rock, mineral nutrients, decaying organic matter, water, air, and billions of living organisms, most of them microscopic decomposers.” (Miller and Spoolman, 211). As stated, soil is made when a mixture of items such as eroded rock and mineral nutrients come together. Soil is used in a plethora of ways. Soil is where many of the nutrients plants need to grow comes from, soil purifies water, and even absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be stored as carbon compounds (Miller and Spoolman, 211). Scientists study soil to develop a better understanding how this crucial factor in human’s survival functions and how to make sure humans don’t waste this precious resource (Miller and Spoolman, 211).
It is a well known fact that a good quality sample is necessary to get realistic soil parameters. Basically, preserving soil natural structure and stress condition in the laboratory sample determine the quality of soil parameters. However, many researchers pointed out that it is impossible to retain original soil condition even though we use so-called high quality sampler and same in-situ effective stress condition during the laboratory testing. On the other hand, many researchers have tried to overcome such problem of soil disturbance by introducing several methods of correcting soil parameters for poor quality sample. Moreover, recompression method and Stress History and Normalized Soil Engineering Properties (SHANSEP) method are two well known methods employed recently in geotechnical engineering practice.
Soil erodibility is an estimate of the ability of the soil to resist erosion based on the physical characteristics. Generally, soils with faster infiltration rates, high levels of organic matter and improved structure have a greater resistance to erosion. Sand, sandy loam, and loam textured soils tend to be less erodible to than silt, very fine sand, and clay textured soils. Sediments with high sand or silt contents and areas with steep slopes erode more easily. Similarly, this also applies to highly fractured or weathered rocks (Frankl, Deckers, Moulaert,Van Damme, Haile, Poesen, & Nyssen, 2014). Below is a law on soil erosion.
Effect of overburden pressure. Soils of same density will give smaller count near ground surface.
Soil stabilization is a method of improving soil properties by blending and mixing other materials. Following are the various soil stabilization methods and
Soil structure is the size, shape and arrangement of mineral grains which form the soil mass. Soil structure is a major characteristic that influences all other engineering properties of the soil. Due to the processes of laterization, lateritic soils have attained distinct structural characteristics. It is an over-simplification to identify all temperate zone soils with dispersed structure and lateritic soils with concretionary structure (Remillon, 1967), lateritic soils may be on the whole more concretionary than most temperate zone soils.
The driving force, due to the weight of the soil, tends to move the soil mass down slope. The resisting force, due to the strength of the soil along the base of the soil mass, or “slip surface,” tends to hold the soil mass in place. If the driving force is greater than the resisting force, the soil mass will slide along the slip surface and a slope stability failure will occur. The potential for failure for a given soil mass is quantified in terms of the Factor of Safety, which is defined as the resisting force divided by the driving force. If the Factor of Safety is greater than 1.0, the soil mass will not
This equation assumes that the secondary consolidation settlement occurs after the dissipation of excess pore water pressure.
Some soils have exceptionally good properties which is useful for plant growth and some soils are hard to cultivate. One of the major causes of tillage addiction is soil compaction also known as tillage pan.The intensity of tillage depends on the level of soil compaction. The huge mechanical stress applied to soil by powerful machinery is also an outcome of compaction. These forces lead to the loss of soil aggregates and pore spaces.
The soil profile is made up of layers called horizons. The thickness of horizons vary but they are usually parallel with the earth’s surface. Weathering of soil starts at the top and goes down so the most changed soil is the top layer and the deeper layers are more original to the parent material. Sometimes soil horizons stand out but other times it is hard to se...
All soils are initially formed from rocks known as parent material. The main cause of the formation of the soil is by weathering of these parent materials and weathering is the breaking down of this parent material because of different climatic conditions.
Specific gravity of solids can be defined as the ratio for weight in air of a given volume of soil particles to the weight in air of an equal volume of pure water at a standard temperature. It is often used in relating a weight of soil to its volume. The specific gravity of soil is determined in the laboratory by the density bottle test. The test is of moderate difficulty with the major source of error due to the presence of entrapped air in the soil sample (Bowles, 1997). The density bottle is weighed and filled with the soils whose specific gravity is to be found, and weighed again. The difference in weights is divided by the weight of an equal volume of water to give the specific gravity of the soils.
Urbanization: Soil is considered as water reservoir. Urbanization acts in creating amount of impermeable surface due to construction of buildings, roads, drainage, sewage, flood relief channel etc. It reduces the amount of infiltration and percolation. Water tends to experiment the runoff process rather than infiltration. This contributes to increase in