Tag: basics of soil pollution

Explanation: Water content or moisture content is the quantity of water contained in a material, such as soil (called soil moisture), rock, ceramics, fruit, or wood. The water content of soil is defined as the ratio of weight of water to weight of solids of given mass of soil.

Explanation: Clay can have a very high porosity. Because its grains are very small, there are a lot of (small) pore spaces in between them. What clay does not have is good permeability, which is a measure of how "connected" these pore spaces are. Clay can hold a lot of water, but it doesn't let it flow very well.

The process of turning and loosening of soil is called ploughing or tilling. Harvesting is the process of cutting the crop and gathering them to transport it to the market. Threshing is the process of separating the chaff from the grain. Irrigation is the process of watering the plants in a field.

The rate of percolation is a volume of water per unit of time. Both ml/min and L/min are valid units for measuring volume per time.

Porosity refers to the percentage of void space in soil. Higher porosity allows water to move more freely through the soil, thus enhancing the percolation rate.

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. The composition of sand varies, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal settings is silica (silicon dioxide, or SiO2), usually in the form of quartz making it most friable.

High percolation is characteristic of soils with large, interconnected pores, such as sandy soils, which allow water to pass through quickly.

Clayey soil has very small, tightly packed particles, which significantly restricts the movement of water, resulting in the lowest percolation rate.