Tag: climate and soil of karnataka

• Black soil is rich in calcium, potassium and magnesium but has poor nitrogen content. 
  
• Crops like cotton, tobacco, chilly, oil seeds, jowar, ragi and maize grow well in it. 
  
• Sandy soil is low in nutrient content but is useful for growing trees such as coconut, cashew and casuarinas in areas with high rainfall.
  

Laterite soil hardens upon exposure to air and is frequently used as building blocks or bricks for construction.

• Alluvial soil consists of silt, sand, clay, and gravel as well as much organic matter. Alluvial deposits are usually most extensive in the lower part of a river's course, forming floodplains and deltas, but they may form at any point where the river overflows its banks or where the flow of a river is checked.
  

Alluvial soil is typically deposited by rivers and is commonly found along coastal plains and river deltas.

• Laterite is a soil rich in iron and aluminium, and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. 
  
• Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red colouration because of high iron oxide content. 
  
• They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock.
  

Black soil is predominantly found in the northern districts of Karnataka, such as Belagavi, Dharwad, and Raichur.

Due to its varying geographic and physio-graphic conditions, Karnataka experiences climatic variations that range from arid to semi-arid in the plateau region, sub-humid to humid tropical in the Western Ghats and humid tropical monsoon in the coastal plains.

Laterite soil is formed under conditions of high temperature and heavy rainfall, which leads to intense leaching of nutrients.

Laterite soil is often used for plantation crops like coffee, tea, rubber, and cashew, which thrive in such soil conditions.

• The black soil is very retentive of moisture.
  
• It swells greatly and becomes sticky when wet in rainy season.