FERTILIZER MINERALS Flashcards
Significance of fertilizers
They provide essential nutrients required for plant growth.
* Correct nutrient deficiencies and amend soil properties to improve fertility.
* Play a crucial role in global food production by enhancing crop yield and quality.
are natural substances or minerals that are used either as direct fertilizers
or as raw materials in the production of compound fertilizers. These include guano,
phosphate rock, limestone, dolomite, magnesite, peat, pyrite, and sulfur.
fertilizer mineral
N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S are crucial for plant health and are typically
supplied by fertilizer minerals
soil-supported nutrients
– C, H, O are derived from air and water and are needed in large quantities.
macronutrients
the accumulated excrement and remains of birds and bats, provide the most important organic source of phosphorus and nitrogen.
guano
Under ideal conditions, the rate of deposition of modern guano deposits is as thick as _____ per year
8 to 10 cm
The initial search for and investigation of guano deposits dated back in ____, when V.E. Elicaño of the then Division of Mines, Bureau of Science assessed guano bearing caves in_______
1922; Dumarao, Capiz
The local guano deposits are confined to ________ and ____ which
are the natural habitat or breeding ground of birds (swallows) and bats.
limestone caves and caverns
Guano deposits show wide variability from average of ___ to ___ % in phosphorous pentoxide in content
1.5% to 36%
The local guano deposits are classified into ___, ____, and ______, each differing in physical and chemical characteristics
(1) fresh guano; (2) phosphatic soil;
and (3) phosphatized guano
_______ usually dark chocolate brown, soft, oblong, and about the size of a grain of palay which eventually disintegrates into pulverulent masses.
Fresh guano
a classification of guano that contains
nitrogen, ranging from less than 1 to 6 percent; phosphorous pentoxide from 0.25 to 10
percent, and occasionally with potash.
fresh guano
produced by the mixing of transported soil material with
droppings and remains of bats and birds deposited inside the cave, is relatively loose
and much lighter in color than fresh guano.
phosphatic soil
On the average,
samples of phosphatic soils gathered from several caves in the region yield total
phosphorus pentoxide of about _______
4 to 12 percent.
true or false: Phosphatic soil guano is generally light orange to yellowish
brown and enriched not only with phosphates but also with lime owing to the admixed
limestone particles that have not been fully disintegrated into soils.
true
underlies the phosphatic soil in a normal sequence
of guano deposition, relates to the comparatively purer and older deposits of guano.
They are porous, friable, hard, compact, and similar to the subjacent phosphatized
limestone, except that they effervesce weakly or not at all in acids. Color varies from shades of brown to cream, violet, and yellow, depending upon the amounts of
impurities
phosphatized guano
Phosphatized high-grade guano deposits carry as much as ___ % of total phosphorous pentoxide
39.7%
A typical sequence of either guano or phosphatized guano is resting on the surface of phosphate rock as preserved in __________ in barangay Kangabohon, municipality of Ronda, Cebu
Kang-abohon Cave
The main source of phosphate in chemical fertilizers.
chloride, fluoride, carbonate, or hydroxyl
forms of apatite,
Two types of phosphate deposits are recognized:
the guano-derived phosphate rock and the open-cut deposits
What is a guano-derived phosphate rock?
found singly or in combination with guano
what is a open-cut deposit phosphate rock
exemplified by phosphorite associated with massive to poorly bedded, porous, coraline and frequently fractured limestone formations of Pliocene to Pleistocene age.
true or false: Guano-open-cut deposit occurs in discontinuous layers, irregular to lenticular bodies, veins
or thin sheets of phosphatic materials interlayered with travertine.
false - guano-derived rock phosphate deposit
is generally
porous, vuggy, friable, hard and occasionally compact. Color varies from violet, cream,
and pink. They occur as irregular to lenticular masses, as boulders admixed with
phosphatic soil or as thin layers interstratified with limestone.
phosphatized limestone
The thickness of the Pinamungahan phosphate rock deposits as exposed in the
test pits ranges from______
2.00 to 2.50 meters
The Balamban phosphate deposit ranges from 1.45 to 1.55 m in thickness and
is approximately _____
235.0 m long.
Chemical analyses of the unwashed phosphate in Pinamungahan show 16.59 to 32.40 percent P2O5 content and from 0.19 to 0.37 percent fluorine. It has a workable positive ore reserve of _____
5,250 metric tons.
a carbonate rock consisting mainly of calcite or aragonite is the most thoroughly exploited of all the sedimentary rocks.
limestone
Total production of limestone for agriculture use from pre-1980 to 2002 period
was ________valued at P262,420,917
1,445,906 MT
Four kinds of lime are used for agricultural purposes:
high-calcium, magnesian,
oyster-shell, and slaked or hydrated.
is made from burning limestone with 50 to 55 percent
calcium oxide and 40 to 55 percent carbonic acid, containing small percentages of
magnesia, silica, iron, and alumina.
high-calcium lime
A lime derived from high-calcium lime raw materials yields______ calcium oxide.
90 to 98 percent
a limestone classification that is used in agriculture contains 5 to 20 percent magnesia and 70
to 85 percent calcium oxide.
magnesian lime
A bushel of magnesian lime weighs about___________; a high-calcium lime, 90 to 95 pounds.
70 pounds
a classfication of limestone that is a crushed oyster shell that has been calcined and used as agricultural lime or simply aglime.
oyster-shell lime
a classification of limestone that is hydrated calcium oxide, Ca(OH)2, with 24 percent water.
hydrated lime
Limestone reserves available for agricultural lime production run to _____
7.890 billion metric tons.
Dolomite, a carbonate of calcium and magnesium, is ideally composed of _____percent magnesia, _____percent lime and _____percent carbon dioxide.
21.70 %; 30.40 %; 47.90 %
Limestone rich in magnesia is called ______
dolomitic limestone
Commercial production of dolomite, which started by 1983, reached its full swing in 1995. As of 2002, total production of dolomite and dolomitic limestone reaches to
________ amounting to P1,540,862,533
10,120,006 MT
formation of dolomite
dolomitization, calcium ions in limestone are replaced by Mg ions from
percolating waters, often seawater
Magnesite, a natural form of magnesium carbonate with ideal magnesia content of_______ percent, is an important source of magnesium for fertilizer.
47.60%
Gross national production of magnesite over the 24-year rating period reaches to_______ amounting to P10,788,072.
65,642 MT
Most of the magnesite deposits in the Philippines are within the province of
Davao Oriental, particularly in ________.
Tagum, Mati, Piso Point, Lupon and Dinagsa-an
Magnesite deposits in Davao Oriental, including those in Sibuyan Island,
Romblon province have reported total reserves of ________
78.795 million MT
Based on occurrence, our magnesite deposits may be classified into three (3)
distinctive types, namely:
(1) clustered nodules or concretions (2) massive deposits and (3) folded sheets
is dark brown to black carbonaceous residuum produced by the partial
decomposition and disintegration of mosses, sedges, trees, and other plants that have
grown or accumulated in shallow lakes, marshes, and tidal flats.
peat
The principal sources of sulfur in the Philippines are the _________
recovered as by-product from various copper mines and the natural sulfur deposits.
pyrite concentrate
is a common mineral associated with copper, lead, zinc, gold and
other metallic minerals.
pyrite (FeS2)
Production of pyrite concentrate started only by 1983 and
terminated right away after 1990, with renewed production only after eight (8) years.
Over the 12-year active period, total production reaches to _______ amounting to P493,619,960
1,875,523 metric tons,
