What is the first factor that affects soil formation?
100
Bedrock
What is the first layer in a soil profile?
100
Minerals come from this first layer of soil.
What is the component in soil that comes from bedrock?
100
There are four different textures in soil.
What are sandy, silty, clay, gravel?
200
The movement of particles that have been weathered.
What is erosion?
200
Temperature, rainfall, snow and ice affect locations around the world.
What influences how parent rocks and sediments are converted into soils? What is Climate?
200
Weathered parent material
What is the second layer that naturally forms in a soil profile? (found above bedrock, mostly minerals)
200
The component of soil that comes from biological influences.
What is organic matter?
200
Ph of soil
What is the chemistry of soil based on?
300
Particles which are deposited in one place.
What is depostion?
300
Thin soil on steep slopes, thicker on plains or valley floors are a result of this factor.
What is the affect of landscape on soil formation?
300
Sub soil
What is the layer called which has an equal mix of minerals and humus/living organisms? OR What is the middle layer of soil, above weathered parent material and below topsoil?
300
Animals have this affect on soil.
What are:
Aerate, move materials, and add to humus when they die and decay or, like earthworms, eat minerals and excrete?
300
Permeability is a very important characteristic of soil. It is ____________________________ (definition)
What is the amount of water an object allows to pass, for example a clay like soil repels water, sandy soil absorbs it?
400
Water or decay cause these changes in rocks.(two words)
What causes chemical weathering in rocks?
400
The two factors that living things affect in soil formation are _________ and _____________.
What are organisms (plants and animals) and people (farming, ranching etc)
400
Topsoil and ground cover
What are the two layers that we see the most in the soil profile? OR What are the top two layers in a soil profile?
400
There are two factors that are important for a healthy soil. (hint: deserts have lots of one but not the other)
What are air and water?
400
This characteristic refers to the size of the particles and the amount of nutrients in soil.
What is structure?
500
Mechanical weathering causes these changes in rocks.
What are physical changes in rocks?
500
It could be 100 years or 400, some soils are millions of years old!
What is Time?
500
Soil profiles can form naturally (_________), or there could be movement of the particles before the soil is formed (_________)
What are residual and transported?
500
Plate tectonics play an important part in soil formation.
What is the type of rock formed through plate tectonics will affect how quickly soil forms or what kind of minerals are in the soil?
500
This characteristic would look different from soil that forms from pumice versus soil that forms from obsidian.