Soil

In this blog I will attempt to educate you about soil with text and pictures. However I will not be able to provide you with a delicious taco to eat as you read, so I am sorry. Soil is the dirt, rocks, minerals, and other  organic materials that make up the thing we call ground. It has three main components such as clay, sand, and silt. Soil got its name based on how it was composed. Below is a colorful chart that shows the naming process based on the percentage of clay, silt, and sand in the soil.

Let's now talk about biomes. Biomes are defined by climate and geography. Below you see a common chart that is used to determine what type of biome a certain area is based on the amount of precipitation it receives annually and the average temperature. 

Below is a map of the world and all of the major biomes. You will notice that the biomes are not the same based on the latitude lines because of the air cells ushce as the Hadley Cells, Ferrel Cells, and Polar Cells. For instance you will notice that the eastern part of the United States has the same biome as western Europe because of the Ferrel Cells or Westerly winds. 

Now lets look at the different types of soils. There are twelve different soil types: Alfisols, Andisols, Aridisols, Entisols, Gelisols, Histosols, Inceptisols, Mollisols, Oxisols, Spodosols, Ultisols, Vertisols. Each one can be found in a different place on earth. Click HERE to learn more.

Georgia's official soil is the Tifton soil series. This type of soil is what makes up most of the Southern Coastal Plain. Click HERE to read more about the official state soil. Ultisol (genus) is what you will find in Georgia. 

Below is the Munsell Color System that helps scientist to identify soil based on three criteria: hue, value, and chroma. Professor Albert H. Munsell is the brilliant man who came up with this system for classifying soil, which was later recognized and used by the USDA as the official soil. If you would like to learn more then you should click HERE.