Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals (as well as wood and artificial materials) through contact with water, atmospheric gases, sunlight, and biological organisms. It occurs in situ (on-site, with little or no movement), and so is distinct from erosion, which involves the transport of rocks and minerals by agents such as ...
Halite is also often used both residentially and municipally for managing ice. Because brine (a solution of water and salt) has a lower freezing point than pure water, putting salt or saltwater on ice that is below 0 °C (32 °F) will cause it to melt—this effect is called freezing-point depression.
The pH of a sodium chloride solution remains ≈7 due to the extremely weak basicity of the Cl − ion, which is the conjugate base of the strong acid HCl. In other words, NaCl has no effect on system pH [29] in diluted solutions where the effects of ionic strength and activity coefficients are negligible.
Cementation (geology) A brief, easy-to-understand description of cementation is that minerals bond grains of sediment together by growing around them. This process is called cementation and is a part of the rock cycle. Cementation involves ions carried in groundwater chemically precipitating to form new crystalline material between sedimentary ...
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from soil by restricting the former term specifically to displaced soil.
Soil chemistry is the study of the chemical characteristics of soil.Soil chemistry is affected by mineral composition, organic matter and environmental factors. In the early 1870s a consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society in England, named J. Thomas Way, performed many experiments on how soils exchange ions, and is considered the father of soil chemistry. [1]
The mineral material from which a soil forms is called parent material. Rock, whether its origin is igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, is the source of all soil mineral materials and the origin of all plant nutrients with the exceptions of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon.
Organic geochemistry, the study of the role of processes and compounds that are derived from living or once-living organisms. [ 13 ] Photogeochemistry is the study of light-induced chemical reactions that occur or may occur among natural components of the Earth's surface.