Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Plants can form new chemicals that can break down minerals, both directly [101] and indirectly through mycorrhizal fungi [25] and rhizosphere bacteria, [102] and improve the soil structure. [103] The type and amount of vegetation depend on climate, topography, soil characteristics and biological factors, mediated or not by human activities.
As water permeates the ice, it becomes segregated into separate pieces of ice in the form of lenses, ribbons, needles, layers or strands of ice. [4] Needle ice is commonly found along stream banks or soil terraces. It is also found by gaps around stones and others areas of patterned ground. The variety of soil properties also affects where it ...
The dominant cause of soil displacement in frost heaving is the development of ice lenses. During frost heave, one or more soil-free ice lenses grow, and their growth displaces the soil above them. These lenses grow by the continual addition of water from a groundwater source that is lower in the soil and below the freezing line in the soil.
Physical weathering, also called mechanical weathering or disaggregation, is the class of processes that causes the disintegration of rocks without chemical change.. Physical weathering involves the breakdown of rocks into smaller fragments through processes such as expansion and contraction, mainly due to temperature
The field Plate Load Test is commonly used to predict the deformations and failure characteristics of the soil/subgrade and modulus of subgrade reaction (ks). The Modulus of subgrade reaction (ks) is used in foundation design, soil-structure interaction studies and design of highway pavements. [citation needed]
Non-artesian springs may simply flow from a higher elevation through the earth to a lower elevation and exit in the form of a spring, using the ground like a drainage pipe. Still other springs are the result of pressure from an underground source in the earth, in the form of volcanic or magma activity.
Soil bulk density, when determined at standardized moisture conditions, is an estimate of soil compaction. [3] Soil porosity consists of the void part of the soil volume and is occupied by gases or water. Soil consistency is the ability of soil materials to stick together. Soil temperature and colour are self-defining.
The pedosphere is the skin of the Earth and only develops when there is a dynamic interaction between the atmosphere (air in and above the soil), biosphere (living organisms), lithosphere (unconsolidated regolith and consolidated bedrock) and the hydrosphere (water in, on and below the soil). The pedosphere is the foundation of terrestrial life ...