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Soil sieve nests with dry soil aggregates after removal from a laboratory drying oven. Soil aggregate stability is a measure of the ability of soil aggregates—soil particles that bind together—to resist breaking apart when exposed to external forces such as water erosion and wind erosion, shrinking and swelling processes, and tillage.
A common method to reduce future swelling in expansive soils is to subject the soil to wetting and drying cycles prior to construction of the lining. [6] Lab testing has shown that subjecting a clayey soil to wetting and drying cycles leads to a hysteresis of shrinkage in the soil, significantly reducing its free swelling potential. [7]
Argillipedoturbation, sometimes referred to as self-mulching, is a process of soil mixing caused by the shrinking and swelling of the smectite clays contained in soil. [1] [2] It is an effect specific to soils of the vertisolic variety, and is triggered by the constant cycles of wetting and drying [1] It is characterized by wide (up to 2 centimetres (0.79 in)), deep (50 centimetres (20 in) or ...
Expansive soils are the most problematic in regions with very defined wet and dry periods, as opposed to areas that maintain a certain level of moisture throughout the year, as this annual cycle causes the soils to expand and swell every year. [3] Water can also be introduced into the soil through people, or their infrastructure.
Cycles of wetting and drying cause soil particles to be abraded to a finer size, as does the physical rubbing of material as it is moved by wind, water, and gravity. Organisms may reduce parent material size and create crevices and pores through the mechanical action of plant roots and the digging activity of animals. [28]
Due to the hysteretic effect of water filling and draining the pores, different wetting and drying curves may be distinguished. The general features of a water retention curve can be seen in the figure, in which the volume water content, θ, is plotted against the matric potential, . At potentials close to zero, a soil is close to saturation ...
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It has a harsh, dry feel when rubbed, even if wet. [2] Plinthite does not harden irreversibly as a result of a single cycle of drying and rewetting. After a single drying, it will remoisten and then can be dispersed in large part if one shakes it in water with a dispersing agent. In a moist soil, plinthite is soft enough to be cut with a spade.