Know your land...know your #soil

Soil is such a #surprising element that more you dig it more it gives you some other #information

There are different types of soil, each with its own set of characteristics. Dig down deep into any soil, and you’ll see that it is made of layers, or horizons (O, A, E, B, C, R). Put the horizons together, and they form a soil profile. Like a biography, each profile tells a story about the life of a soil. Most soils have three major horizons (A, B, C) and some have an organic horizon (O). The horizons are:

O Horizon (humus or organic): - The top, organic layer of soil, made up mostly of leaf litter and humus (decomposed organic matter). The O horizon is thin in some soils, thick in others, and not present at all in others.

A Horizon (topsoil): The layer called topsoil; it is found below the O horizon and above the E horizon. Seeds germinate and plant roots grow in this dark -colored layer. It is made up of humus (decomposed organic matter) mixed with mineral particles. A good material for plants and other organisms to live.

E Horizon (eluviated): This eluviation (leaching) layer is light in color? this layer is beneath the A Horizon and above the B Horizon. It is made up mostly of clay, minerals, sand, silt and organic matter, leaving a concentration of sand and silt particles of quartz or other resistant materials – missing in some soils but often found in older soils and forest soils.

B Horizon (subsoil): Rich in minerals that leached. Also called the subsoil- this layer is beneath the E Horizon and above the C Horizon. It contains clay and mineral deposits (like iron, aluminum oxides, and calcium carbonate) that it receives from layers above it when mineralized water drips from the soil above.

C Horizon (parent material): Also called regolith: the layer beneath the B Horizon and above the R Horizon. It consists of slightly broken up bedrock. Plant roots do not penetrate into this layer? very little organic material is found in this layer.

R Horizon (bedrock): The unweathered rock (bedrock) layer that is beneath all the other layers. Bedrock is made up of igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rock such as granite, basalt, quartzite, limestone or sandstone that forms the parent material for some soils – if the bedrock is close enough to the surface to weather. This is not soil and is located under the C horizon.

Some part of this post taken from Soils 4 teachers mr spittorinos classroom