Soil is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Earth's body of soil, called the pedosphere, has four important functions:
as a medium for plant growth
as a means of water storage, supply and purification
as a modifier of Earth's atmosphere
as a habitat for organismsAll of these functions, in their turn, modify the soil and its properties.
Soil is also commonly referred to as earth or dirt; some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil.
The pedosphere interfaces with the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere. The term pedolith, used commonly to refer to the soil, translates to ground stone in the sense fundamental stone, from the ancient Greek πέδον ground, earth. Soil consists of a solid phase of minerals and organic matter (the soil matrix), as well as a porous phase that holds gases (the soil atmosphere) and water (the soil solution). Accordingly, soil scientists can envisage soils as a three-state system of solids, liquids, and gases.Soil is a product of several factors: the influence of climate, relief (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), organisms, and the soil's parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time. It continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion. Given its complexity and strong internal connectedness, soil ecologists regard soil as an ecosystem.Most soils have a dry bulk density (density of soil taking into account voids when dry) between 1.1 and 1.6 g/cm3, while the soil particle density is much higher, in the range of 2.6 to 2.7 g/cm3. Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, although fossilized soils are preserved from as far back as the Archean.Soil science has two basic branches of study: edaphology and pedology. Edaphology studies the influence of soils on living things. Pedology focuses on the formation, description (morphology), and classification of soils in their natural environment. In engineering terms, soil is included in the broader concept of regolith, which also includes other loose material that lies above the bedrock, as can be found on the Moon and on other celestial objects as well.
Homework Statement
A horizontal layer of soil in a tube 100 x 100 mm in cross-section. water is supplied to maintain a constant head difference of 300 mm across the sample. the coefficient of permeability of the soils in the direction of flow through them are as follows:
Soil A = 10^-2...
Help With Soil Questions...
Homework Statement
Any help will be appreciated.
The moist weight of a soil is 16.5 kN/m^3. Given w = 15% and Gs = 2.67
determine;
(a) dry unit weight
(b) porosity
(c) degree of saturation
(d) mass of water, in kg/m3, to be added to reach full saturation...
Does anyone know the phi factors for overturning, sliding, and soil bearing in a small reinforced footing? If you could site the precise source too, that'd be great. I don't have access to many up to date specs and codes :/
Homework Statement
If Earth is considered to be metal sphere (radius = 6371[km]), how much charge Q must be deposited on its surface in order for an arc to be established in the air? If surface was charged to this value by removing all electrons from a volume of soil, how large would this...
I'm reading some books that describe site excavations. The archaeologists dig layers of dirt up to get to the ancient settlements many feet below. I'm wondering how they get buried in the first place. There are some photographs that look like a town from the ninth century with a series of rooms...
Hi all,
I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this topic.
I want to simulate soil moisture and how much it decreases given a certain temperature.
For example at temperature 25 degrees Celsius , what is the rate of decrease of the soil moisture? The kind of soil is clay suitable...
Hi everybody,
I am searching for a project and I need help.
Last year I realized that the trees which are around carpenters shops' have bigger fruits than the others.
I am searching about it. Can the Iron which comes from waste neils and screws affect the soil's mineral ratios?
How can they...
first of all, i not sure whether this question should be posted here. seem the soil is more related to chemistry. :confused: Is Fe the highest concentration in the experiment extraction of heavy metal from organic oxidation phase (OO phase)? If so, why? thanks for helping ya.:smile:
Homework Statement
Q1) Which of the following processes decrease/decreases the amount of nitrogen in an agricultural soil?
(A)leaching (B) nitrification (C) denitrification (D)Absorption by plants (E) removal of the harvest
Homework Equations
N/A
The Attempt at a Solution
I...
Soil mechanics--Triaxial test
Homework Statement
Generally, the triaxial tests can be classified as three types, i.e., UU, CU, and CD tests. The type of test to be adopted depends on how best we can simulate the field conditions. In other words, the purpose of carrying out a particular...
I have an orange tree growing in a pot, and lately the soil has been getting some yellow growth of some sort on it. I can't seem to find anything about it in any of my books. The plant doesn't appear to be adversely affected. Any ideas what it is? Is it a problem? Will it spread to my other...
Hi, just wanted to quickly find out what you would class soil which has water content which is lower than its liquid limit, but above its plasticity limit, thanks.
Edit: I'm starting to think it just acts as a plastic hopefully that's right
Hi all,
i Have a small problem regarding modeling of Soil layers..
The problem is , I need to draw 3layers of soil each measuring 3*0.7, 3*0.15, 3*0.25 .At the middle of the 3*0.25 layer i need to apply a load of 60Kpa & find out the deformation on all the layers because of that...
The soil on Mars has been found to have nutrients which would be conducive to supporting life:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25396378/
All the more reason for us to go and start farming over there.
I heard that batteries can affect soil. I wanted to examine this and started to investigate into this problem.
I did experiment: I planted bean into 2 pots- 1st pot: soil without batteries, and 2nd pot: soil was mixed with batteries. After 4 days, plant from 1st pot grew normally and plant...
Hi, I was wanting to test garden soil for its phosphorous content. I've seen test kits and electric/chemical kits and the like, but is it possible to do this DIY? I'd need to create a solution and have a scale to determine results. Thanks for your help.
Hi Guys,
Sorry for dumping this thread in here, I really wouldn't know where this would fit...
I'm a farmer in Australia and I'm trying out these really simple devices to measure nutrient levels in my soil, they're basically a ceramic container with a small hose that gets buried into the...
Homework Statement
A coin of mass 10g is dropped from the top of a tall building. If after failing for 10s , it falls intosoil and penetrates to a depth of 5cm, calculate
(Q) the average force exerted on the coin by the soil.
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution...
This is a lab question I have for Environmental Soil Physics. Been thinking about it for awhile and I have nothing.
What would be the average particle density of a mixture of 3% soil organic matter and 97% soil minerals by weight. Soil orgainc matter and soil minerals have densities of...
ok the question goes sth like this,an equation of p=c1+c2*r^0.625cos@,where p is the pressure exerted on the soil,c1 & c2 are constant to be determined,r& @ are polar coordinates.(@ measured fr the x-axis which is of direction south)
now the question states that pisa lean at an angle of...
I had an interesting situation at work. One of the Faculty has a very large plastic planter filled with store bought soil. It has appearantly been sitting outdoors unused for quite some time and has become incredibly dried out with some dry dead plant material still mixed in.
Yesterday there...
oh well I got my answers so now I'm just using this thread to remind me of what I want to write in my notebook
thanks!
THE LIST:
(Add to the list...subtract from the list..etc)
Spaceships
Man Made Objects like Spaceships
Mercury
Venus
Mars (Somebody said we could melt the ice...
Does anyone know if it is possible use a soil pH meter to measure the pH of liquids (ie. not soil)? Or a better way to phrase it, is there any diference between a soil pH meter and a normal pH meter meant to be used on liquids that would cause inacuracies or other problems if one was...
Recently the US government issued an arrest warrant (charge of murder) for an Iraqi citizen on Iraqi soil. Does the US government have the legal authority to take such actions on foreign soil?
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=17475...