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Factors Affecting Soil Formation
Factors Affecting Soil Formation
Formation
Ag I
Northshore High
Soil Formation Terms
• Topography – the slope of the ground
surface as determined by features such as
mountains, hills, plains, etc.
• Weathering – the process by which rocks
and minerals are changed to soils.
• Soil formation – process by which rocks
and minerals are changed to soil over a
period of time.
• Rock – solid & massive materials
composed of one or more minerals.
Soil Formation Terms
• Mineral – chemical compound neither
animal nor vegetable; results from
inorganic processes of nature.
• Loess – silty, floury material laid down by
wind (fine soil particles)
• Alluvium – soil material laid down by
running water in the flood plains or
bottomlands of rivers and streams.
What affects soil formation?
• Soil characteristics develop as a result of
their origin and environment. Soil begins
as a particular rock material and develops
slowly over many years. Each soil is a
product of a combination of the following
factors.
– Parent material
– Climate
– Living organisms (biota)
– Topography
– Time
Parent Material
• Alluvium – finely pulverized rock laid down
by running water. Mostly silt and clay
particles with some sand.
• Marine Deposits – finely pulverized rock
laid down under sea. This material has
been thrust up by shifts in the earth’s
crust.
• Loess – silty, floury material laid down by
winds. Mostly silt and clay with little or no
sand.
Climate
• Physical weathering – results from
mechanical agents, such as heating &
cooling, freezing & thawing, &/or abrasion.
– Materials are still the same at the molecular
level.
– Materials are classified by the way they have
been moved or scattered
Climate
• Chemical weathering – Results from the
action of water, oxygen, & carbon dioxide
on the rocks.
– Carbon dioxide mixed with rain water forms a
weak acid, speeding up the weathering of
parent material.
– Materials that have been chemically
weathered are no longer the same at the
molecular level.
• Example – Clay has been synthesized into
something physically and chemically different from
the parent rock.
Climate