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Soil scientists use the capital letters O, A, B, C, and E to identify the master horizons, and lowercase letters for distinctions of these horizons.
These processes produce the characteristic soil profile. They are defined as soils containing at all depths no more than ten percent weatherable minerals , and low cation exchange capacity . Oxisols are always a red or yellowish color, due to the high concentration of iron (III) and aluminium oxides and hydroxides .
In addition, water alters the soil profile by dissolving and re-depositing mineral and organic solutes and colloids, often at lower levels, a process called leaching. In a loam soil , solids constitute half the volume, gas one-quarter of the volume, and water one-quarter of the volume of which only half will be available to most plants, with a ...
USDA soil taxonomy (ST) developed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters (most commonly their properties) and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series.
It is of use in distinguishing boundaries of horizons within a soil profile, [110] determining the origin of a soil's parent material, [111] as an indication of wetness and waterlogged conditions, [112] and as a qualitative means of measuring organic, [113] iron oxide [114] and clay contents of soils. [111]
The Proctor compaction test is a laboratory method of experimentally determining the optimal moisture content at which a given soil type will become most dense and achieve its maximum dry density.
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In 1907, Edgar Buckingham created the first water retention curve. [2] It was measured and made for six soils varying in texture from sand to clay. The data came from experiments made on soil columns 48 inch tall, where a constant water level maintained about 2 inches above the bottom through periodic addition of water from a side tube.