Some residues show increases in particular elements due to accumulation of

particularly resistant minerals such as ilmenite, rutile, zircon, quarts or even gold
and platinum.
Weatheringand sedimentation are the geochemical processes of greatest
importance to humans, since they provide us with our basic economic resource,
the soil. Human culture and civilization can be closely correlated with the pettern
of soil fertility. This can be directly traced back to the geochemical processes that
have been responsible for the formation of the soil from the parent rock
materials.
The unique characteristic of soil is the organization of its constituens and
properties into layers that are related to the present-day surfacc and change
vertically with depth. The individual layers are reffered to as soil horizons and
may range in thicness from a few inches to several feet, collectively, they are
known as the soil profile. Most soil profiles comprise three principal horizons,
identified from the surface downward as A, B, and C. The A horizons, develops
primarily as a result of partial loss of original material by leaching and
mechanical removal (eluviation) resulting from the downward percolation of rain
water. This eluviated material accumulates in the b horizon, which is thus a zone
of accumulation. The B horizon is characteristically enriched in clay and often
has a red-brown or yellow-brown color from an accumulation of iron oxides. Minor
and trace elements are frequently enriched in the B horizons, it may be rock in
situ, transported alluvial or glacial material, or even the soil of a precedding
cycle.
Because soil result from the weathering of rocks, its composition must
depend on the composition of the rock from which it was formed. This statement
is obvious, but it may be misleading. Although soils do differ in composition, they
are on the whole rather uniform in a given area, and the differences are
promarily the result of environmental factors. The same parent rock may give
rise to very different soils under different conditions. The environmental factors
include climate, biological actifity, topography, and time, and the most important
of these is climate. This can be seen by comparing the productivity of soils
formed from the same rock type in the normal temperature zone in and the
humid tropies. In general, the soil in the humid tropies will be much less fertile,
as a result of the intense leaching brought about by high.