Soil: the upper layer of earth in which plants grow, a black or dark brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay, and rock particles. It is one of the essential components of land.
Land: the part of the earth's surface that is not covered by water.
Earth: the planet on which we live.
Soil: the upper layer of earth in which plants grow, a black or dark brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay, and rock particles. It is one of the essential components of land.
Land: the part of the earth's surface that is not covered by water.
Earth: the planet on which we live.
Soil is a function of minerals, organic material, living organisms, air, water, and time.
Land is part of the Earth's surface not covered by water.
Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun which dominantly harbor life.
But, the three are inseparable.
Alaa Ibrahim
Earth: is our home, and the only place we know of so far in which living things are inhabited. It is the only known planet to have an atmosphere that contains free oxygen, surface oceans of water, and, of course, life.
Land: it belongs to earth that is not filled with water.
Soil: is the 3-D natural body, composed of organic and Inorganic constituent, formed after alteration of various soil formation processes, provides support for microbial and plant growth.
As a Soil Scientist call it soil and busnissment called it land and a engineer called earth
Alaa,
We were very fortunate to study soil science in one of only two Soil Science depts. in the UK, i.e. at Aberdeen University. All geographers had to complete a 10 week course in soils for our honours. Our lecturer was a Jamaican (if I remember correctly) E.A.Fitzpatrick. Like all good students, we read and quoted his book "An Introduction to Soil Science", Oliver & Boyd, 1978. His comments are worth quoting :
"Perhaps it is true to say that soils are man's major natural resource because most of our food and clothing comes directly or indirectly from them"
"Soils, or the pedosphere, are composed of air, water, mineral material, organic material and organisms . . ."
"Since most soils take thousands or even millions of years to form, they cannot be replaced if they are washed away by erosion"
I quote him because he underlines the importance of soil (the product of a delicate balance of parent material, climate, organisms, topography and time) to our existence on this planet Earth. Who would think a clod of earth could be so interesting, but he certainly made us look closer at soils and seek to conserve them.
More to follow
George Strachan
. . . the more to follow:
Pic 1 is of a podsol in which cool damp climate, moss and heather vegetation cover combine to produce very acidic soil conditions, in which the iron is leached down to form an iron pan (thin dark brown impervious layer) at the base of the soil horizon.
Pic 2 is of a brown forest soil where grass cover produces a rich humus. Note the long roots penetrating deep into the parent material.
Pic 3 is of tropically weathered granite dating back to the Tertiary. the granite is the parent material, soil developed on it was chemically weathered and later soliflucted hence the two soil horizons. This demonstrates the time factor.
Pic 4 is a good example of what bad farming practice can do to soil. Here the farmer has ploughed his field downslope resulting any heavy rainwater being channeled rapidly downhill.
I hope these pictures help to give some idea of the diversity, time factor, and organic/inorganic inter-relationships that go into soil formation. Earth is simply any soil or parent material bulldozed to make way for construction purposes. Land is simply any ground above sea level.
Regards
George Strachan
Earth is the planet, from this excluding water muddy mass is land and peel of land is soil
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