What is Soil?

• A natural covering formed

throughout the ages by
the forces of nature
acting upon native rocks
and vegetation

• The skin of the Earth

• All life is ultimately

dependent upon the
Soils productivity of soil
Soil Thickness: Storage

Input ± Output = Soil thickness, or:

Rock weathering ± Soil transport = Thickness

Soil thickness reflects the balance between

rates of soil production and rates of downslope
soil movement.
 Weathering >> Erosion Erosion >> Weathering

Thin, little soil development

Polar / Alpine (cold, dry)

Thick soil development (warm, wet)

3
Factors of Soil Formation
Factors of Soil Formation
Climate

• Temperature and precipitation

• Indirect controls (e.g., types of plants)

• Weathering rates

The greater the rainfall, the faster the rates

of erosion and leaching.
Factors of Soil Formation
Organisms
• Types of native vegetation

• Weathering is dependent of plant growth

• Plant and animal activity produces humic acids that are

powerful weathering agents.

• Plants can physically erode as well as chemically erode.

• Plants stabilize soil profiles, Animals (including

humans) tend to increase erosion.
 Factors of Soil Formation
Parental Material: starting point of soil development
• Chemistry
• Mineralogy
• Grain size

• Finely textured parent

materials tend to weather
into finely textured soils.

• Coarsely textured parent

materials tend to weather
into coarsely textured
soils.

• Darker minerals tend to

yield more fertile soils.
Factors of Soil Formation
Topography:
• Ground slope
• Elevation
• Aspect (e.g., north facing vs. south facing slopes)
Factors of Soil Formation
Time
• Development and destruction of soil horizons

• Reaction rates are slow, the longer a rock unit

has been exposed, the more likely it is to be
weathered.

Time: Typical development = 2.5 cm/100 yrs. to

2.5 cm/1,000 yrs.
An Example of Bornhardt Landform in Mali, Africa
Soil Horizons: O (organics = humus), A, B, C. Boundaries
usually transitional rather than sharp.
Cookport soil, A Horizon
Pennsylvania
B Horizon

C Horizon
 Soil Particle Size
Diameter (mm), USDA
Name of soil separate
Classification
Clay less than 0.002
Silt 0.002–0.05
Very fine sand 0.05–0.10
Fine sand 0.10–0.25
Medium sand 0.25–0.50
Coarse sand 0.50–1.00
Very coarse sand 1.00–2.00
Three Fractions of Mineral Matter

0.05-2.0mm

0.002-0.05 mm

<0.002 mm
 Soil Texture
• Percent of sand, silt & clay in a soil
• Most important physical property of
the soil
• Related to:
• water flow potential,
• water holding capacity,
• fertility potential,
• suitability for many urban
uses like bearing capacity
• Loam: soil of approximately equal amounts of
sand, silt, and clay.
USDA Soil Texture Triangle
Example:
• 60% silt
• 10% sand
• 30% clay
• = silty clay loam

What about this soil:

• 30% silt
• 0% sand
• 70% clay

USDA Web Soil Survey

 Soil Structure
• The arrangement of the primary soil
particles (sand, silt, and clay) and other
soil materials into discrete aggregates.

• Structure vs. Texture

 Factors Affecting Soil Structure
• Kind of clay
• Amount of organic matter
• Freezing and thawing
• Wetting and drying
• Action of burrowing organisms
• Growth of root systems of plants
Granular Structure
 Land
• Land: Solid, dry surface of
earth
• Makes up 29.2% of Earth's
surface
• Earth's land surface is almost
entirely covered by regolith, a
layer of rock, soil, and minerals
that forms the outer part of the
crust.
• One third of land is covered in
trees, another third is used for
agriculture, and 10% is
covered in permanent snow
and glaciers.
 Land Cover/Land Use (LCLU)
• Land Cover: material physically present on the land surface,
for example, woody crops, herbaceous crops, barren land,
and shrub-covered areas.
• Land Use: human allocation of land for various purposes,
including farming, ranching, and recreation

Land cover as classified by the International Geosphere-Biosphere

Programme (IGBP) into 17 classes
Land Use in China (2017)
 Terrain, Landform, Landscape, and
Topography
• Terrain: A lay of the land, expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and
orientation of terrain features
• Landform: A natural or artificial feature on the surface of the Earth or
other planet, i.e., hills, mountains, valleys etc.
• Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in
the landscape is known as topography.
• Landscape is part of earth’s surface, can be related to nature or human
 Land Resources
• Land resources:
encompasses the
physical, biotic,
environmental,
infrastructural and
socio-economic
components of a natural
land unit, including
surface and near-
surface freshwater
resources important for
management.
• Part of natural
resources
 Land/Soil Pollution
• Land Pollution:
deterioration of the earth’s
land surfaces at and below
ground level.
• Caused by the
accumulation of solid and
liquid waste materials that
contaminate groundwater
and soil
• Main contributors include
litter, waste, urbanization,
construction, mining,
extraction, and agriculture.
 Effects of Land Pollution
• Land Pollution affects the soil on the Earth.
• Also affects the health of humans, animals, and plants, e.g.,
habitat destruction, where animal and plants wiped out in
certain areas
• Can contribute and help contaminate the air and water.
• Global warming gases such as methane
 Land Pollution in HK
• Landfill waste: about 4.17 million tons of solid waste make its way to our
landfills
• Plastic Pollution
• 3.9 billion disposable food and drink containers every year.
• 170 takeaway meals and 180 disposal drinks for every Hongkonger
• 21% of the city’s total municipal solid waste (MSW)

One of three strategic landfill sites in Tuen Mun,

Hong Kong.