Soil

Mr. Weather’s World is a weekly video series bringing you interesting and reliable information about the Earth Sciences, Space Weather, and Climate Change. Tune in each week for exciting new content with host and meteorologist Curt Silverwood (Millersville University Alum).

Edited with: Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Character Animator, and Audition.

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Soil is critical for life on Earth. It is formed from weathered rocks and minerals. It’s composed of minerals, water, dead organic matter, gases, liquids, & living organisms.

Soil is fundamental in different ecosystems and an essential resource for many industries.

For instance, soil is used in agriculture, building, pottery, medicine, and even beauty products!

Depending on location and climate, soil forms in different ways.

Tropical regions have thick and infertile soil. Dry climates make thin, rocky soils. Temperate locations make two types of soil depending on rainfall amounts.

If you dig deep enough you can see many layers or horizons. These horizons form a soil profile. Most soils have three major horizons while some have an additional organic layer.

O - Humus - organic material including the remains of animals and plants
A - Topsoil - a mixture of organic matter and minerals
B - Subsoil - mostly minerals and clay, and lacking organic material
C - Regolith or Parent Rock - a layer of weathered and broken rock fragments
R - Bedrock - solid, unweathered and unbroken body of rock

There are three types of soil classified by particle (or grain) size. Those are clays, silts, and sand.

Clay is very fine, silt is the “middle-man”, while sand is coarse and largest in size.

Soil texture is influenced by the parent rock, depending on the soil’s texture it may not be able to support plant growth. Loam soil is the ideal ratio of sand, silt, and clay for growing plants.

Next time, we’ll discuss how soil and rock move due to gravity - Mass Movements. Thank you for watching, please subscribe to Mr. Weather’s World on YouTube for new videos every #MrWeatherWednesday!
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Thanks for watching!