1.

2 Origin and formation of soils

 Soil forming factors
Hans Jenny (1899-1992) formalized an
equation to describe the basic factors
that drive geographic variability and
formation of soil:

Soil = a function of {Cl.O.R.P.T}

Soil forming factors
Where;
Cl= climate (temperature and moisture)
O = organisms (biological process including living
and dead organisms, plants and soil
microorganisms being the main players)
R = relief (topography, slope, landscape)
P = parent material (texture, primary mineralogy)
T = time (time since last disturbance).
Factor Influencing Soil Formation
There are five major factors that control the
formation of soil
 Residual Parent Materials . Geological (rock +

mineral) or organic precursor to the soil.

 Climate. Primarily precipitation and temperature.

 Biota. Living organisms, especially native

vegetation, microbes, soil animals, and human
being.
 Topography. Slope aspect and landscape position.

 Time. The period of time since the parent

materials became exposed to soil formation.

 Original Parent Materials

Two types:

 Organics
 Inorganics
 Parent materials

The inorganic parent materials can be in two groups:

Original (non-transported)
 Residual soil - Rock and minerals

Transported materials by various agents

 Water transported Parent materials.

 Gravity –transported parent materials

 Wind transported parent material

 Ice transported parent material

 Parent Materials

Organic soil Materials.

 Originated from plants (native)

 Deposited in wet areas.
 Residual Parent Material (RPM)
Or residual soil
There is minimum off-site transport, the rate of
formation is often slow, and the soil appears to
form directly on bedrock.
Develops from weathering of the underlying rock.

In warm and humid climate, the RPM are

thororoughly leached and oxidised – observed red
and yellow color of oxidised iron componuds.
Texture of these soil is directly related to the

tecture of parent material.

 Water Transported parent materials
There are three types of water transported
parent materials:
 Lacustrine – deposited in lakes.
 Alluvial (fluvial) – deposited in river and

streams (fresh water system).

 Marine – deposited in ocean.
Water-transported parent material
There are several classes of alluvial deposits :

Alluvial or fluvial deposits - deposit in river and

stream ;
◦ Flood plains
◦ Alluvial fans
◦ deltas
Floodplain
 Floodplain is part of river valley that is inundated
during floods.
 Sediment carried by the swollen sream is deposited

during the flood.

 Coarser material being laid down near the river

channel where the river is deeper and flowing with

more disturbance and energy.
 Finer materials settle in the calmer waters farther

from the channel.

 Each major flooding episode lays down a distinctive

layer of sediment.
 Alluvial fans
Streams that leave a narrow valley in an upland
and suddenly descend to a much broader valley
below deposit sediment in the shape of fan.
The rushing water tends to sort the sediment

particles by size, first dropping the gravel and

coarse sand, then depositing the finer materials
toward the bottom of the alluvial fan.
Alluvial fan debris is found in widely scattered

areas in mountainous and hilly regions. Soil

derived from the debris often very productive
even though they may be quite coarse-textured.
Alluvial fans
Delta Deposits
 Much of the finer sediments carried by stream is
not deposited in the floodplain but is discharged
into the lake, reservoir, or ocean into which the
stream flow.
 Delta form from suspended material settles near

the mouth of the river.

 It is clayey in nature and is likely to be poorly

drained. Delta marshes are among the most

excellent and biologically important of wetland
habitats.
 Many of the habitat are today being protected or

restored.
Gravity transported parent material
 Called colluvium.
 It is material that slides or rolls down slopes due to
the force of gravity.
 Colluvium is unsorted and unstable and subject to
landslide.
 Colluvium Parent Material

Colluvium is a type of parent material that

moved down slope due to gravitational forces
(in some cases water may play a role in initiation
of the movement). Colluvium is heterogeneous,
unsorted material of all particle sizes (from
boulders to clay) with relatively little abrasion to
round the particles. Consequently, colluvium
consists of very sharp, angular rock fragments
accumulated at the base of steep slopes.
Colluvium is a loose deposit of sharp edged rock debris
accumulated through the action of gravity at the base of a cliff
or slope.
Colluvium is sediment that has moved downhill to the bottom of
the slope without the help of running water in streams. Gravity and
sheet-wash during rain storms are the predominant agents of
colluvium deposit
 Wind transported parent material
•Alsocalled eolian deposit.
•There are two types of wind transported material:
•Loes – silt sized material typically blown from floodplains
and glacial outwash.
•Sand – common in arid and subhumid area where
sandstone parent material has weathered and been
shifted by wind
Sand may be transported by wind developed
dune sand
 Parent Material – ORGANIC DEPOSIT
 Organic material accumulates in wet places
where plant growth exceeds the rate of
residue decomposition.
 Residues accumulate over the centuries from
wetland plants such as pondweeds and
mosses.
 Organic deposits often accumulates up to
several meters in depth.
 Collectively these organic deposits called
PEAT
 Types of Peat Materials

Based on the nature of the parent materials, there

are 4 kinds of peat:
 Moss peat. The remain of mosses such as

sphagnum.
 Herbaceous. Residues of herbaceous plants such

as sedges, reeds and cattails.

 Woody peat. From the remain of woody plants,

including trees and shrubs.

 Sedimentary peat. Remain of aquatic plants (e.g.

algae) and fecal material of aquatic animals.

Fecal – feces and byproducts of feces decomposition
cattails
sedges
cattails
shrub
 Climate
 Temperature and precipitation (moisture)
 Climate – Weather
 Weathering - processes

 Physical
 Chemical
 Biological
Weathering
Weathering may be defined as the response of
materials that were once in equilibrium with the
earth’s crust to new conditions at or near contact with
water, air, and living matter.
Weathering integrates the functions of climate,
vegetation, time, and even topography.
Weathering occurs by:
 Physical

 Chemical

 Biological.
Physical weathering
 Temperature – most pronounce in cold and dry climates
and climate that undergo extreme temperature variation
– leads to process called exfoliation.
 Wind. Windblown abrasive sediments can wear away rock
and produce such phenomenon as natural rock arches.
 Water. Water borne sediment abrasion is an even more
important weathering process.

Notes
For most part, physical and mechanical weathering causes the rocks to
disintegrate, and they become smaller, which increase the surface area
and chemical reactivity. But the rock maintain their overall chemical
composition.
 Chemical weathering
Chemical weathering is the dominant type in
most hot and humid environments.
Temperature is important because for every

10oC rise, most chemical reaction rates double.

Water is important because water is involved

in all of the most basic kinds of chemical

weathering processes.
There are various kind of chemical weathering

processes:
Hydration
Hydrolysis
Dissolution
Carbonation and other acid reactions
Oxidation reduction.
Biological weathering
Plants and microorganisms contribute to weathering
primarily through:

 Root growth - Physical weathering

 Acidification reactions
 Complexation reactions.
 Physical weathering

Root growth may disintegrate rock effectively

RELIEF = Topography

Consists of three factors; namely

Aspect.

Slope.

Curvature.
 Aspect

Aspect (the orientation of a surface) is important

because it influences the amount of solar
radiation that a soil receives, and therefore its
temperature.
Topography - aspect
 Slope

Slope is the rise versus the run of a landscape,

usually measured in ratio of vertical to horizontal .
Example 1meter per 100 meter written as
1V:100H.

Steep slopes encourage runoff and erosion and

consequently receive less effective rainfall than
flatter area.
 Curvature

Determine water holding capacity of the landscape.

 Biota
Biota – living organism take part in soil formation
as:
 Organic matter accumulation (source).

 Biochemical/biophysical weathering.

 Profile mixing.

 Nutrient cycling.

 Aggregate stability.
 Time
Soilforming process take time to develop.
Rate of weathering depending on other factors

such as climate, precipitation and the reactive

mineral present in the parent material.
Chronosequence – It is a series of soils that

have developed in the same topography, climate,

and parent material but differ in the amount of
time that each has been exposed to weathering.

Notes: chronosequence are soils differing only in

the amountof time for their development)
 Mature soil
Parent Young molisol Old soil
materials soil alfisols
entisols
 SOIL DYNAMICS

• Soil is a dynamic system it will continue to

change
• The changing can take place by various
process.
• The processes include:
 BASIC PROCESSES OF SOIL FORMATION

 TRANSFORMATIONS
 TRANSLOCATIONS
 ADDITIONS
 LOSSES
 Transformations
 Occurs when soil constituents are chemically or
physically modified or destroyed and others are
synthesized from the precursor materials.
 Many transformation involve weathering of
primary minerals, disintegrating and altering some
to form various kind of silicate clays.
 The decomposition products recombine into new
mineral such as hydrous oxides of iron and
aluminium.
 Other transformation involve decomposition of
organic residues, synthesis of organic acids,
humus and other products.
 Translocation

 Translocation involve the movement of

inorganic and organic materials laterally within
a horizon or vertically from one horizon up or
down to another.
 Major translocation agent is water move
through gravity or capillary action.
 Material moved include dispersed fine clay
particles, dissolved salt, and dissolved organic
substances.
 Other translocation agent – Organism such as
earthworm, termites and rodents.
 Additions

 Inputs of material to the developing soil profile

from outside sources are considered additions.
 Examples
Input of organic matter from fallen plants leaves
Sloughed-off (discard as undesirable) roots (the carbon
having originated in the atmosphere).
Dust particles falling on surface.
 Losses
 Materials are lost from the soil profile by leaching to
ground water, erosion of surface materials, or other
form of removals.
 Evaporation and plant use cause the lost of water soil.
 Leaching and drainage cause the loss of water,
dissolved substance such as salt or silica weathered
from parent materials.
 Major loss agent is erosion often remove fine particles
such as humus, clay and silt.
 Microbial decomposition cause the loss of organic
matter.
 Grazing by animals or harvest by people remove large
amount of both organic and inorganic elements.
 Soil Profile

 Soil layers from surface to subsurface – soil horizon

 Soil landscape – soil profile.
 Soil Horizon

 Soil master horizon

 Subdivision within master horizon
Master
horizons and
subhorizons
are well
defined in this
soil profile.
There is
accumulation
of organic
matter in
horizons A, B 1
and B 2. The
eluvial E-
horizon has a
much lighter
colour due to
leaching
(humic
podzol).
A lateritic soil typical of
the humid tropics. In this
case, there has been no
ground-water influence
within the 0- to 125- cm
zone where there is
neither plinthite nor hard
concretions. The B-
horizon is a reddish
sandy loam relatively rich
in iron salts and with at
least 15 percent clay
(orthic ferralsol, Zambia) .
See also Photograph 9
 Subdivisons within master horizon
letter distinction letter Distinction
a Organic matter, highly j Yellow sulfur materials
decomposed
b Buried soil horizon ji Cryoturbation (frost
churning)
c Concretions or nodules k Accumulation of carbonates
d Dense unconsolidated m Cementation or induration
materials
e Organic matter, n Accumulation of sodium
intermediate
decomposition
f Frozen soil p Plowing or other disturbance

g Strong gleying q Accumulation of silica.

h Illuvial accumulation of r Weathered or soft bedrock