WEATHERING AND SOIL FORMATION Flashcards
Serves as building blocks of rocks
Minerals
A naturally occurring inorganic substance with more or less definite chemical composition and specific physical properties
Minerals
study of minerals and their properties.
Mineralogy
Persist in the soil in their original state due to high resistance to decomposition. They are chief sources of sand and silt fractions of soils
Primary Minerals
Arise from the chemical breakdown of the least resistant primary minerals. Contributes the clay fraction to the soil.
Secondary Minerals
a predominantly parent material of this substance is expected to give rise to sandy soils; does not contribute to soil fertility because of its main composition of SiO2.
Quartz
contributes Potassium (K) upon weathering
Orthoclase
Contributes Sodium (Na) upon weathering
Sodium-plagioclase
Contributes Calcium (Ca) upon weathering
Calcium-plagioclase
It is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as component of limestone
Calcite
an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally CaMg(CO3)2.
Dolomite
isa soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall.
Gypsum
a sedimentary rock composed principally of calcite or the double carbonate of calcium and magnesium (dolomite). It is commonly composed of tiny fossils, shell fragments and other fossilized debris.
Limestone
isan iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition.
Limonite
heavy and relatively hard oxide mineral, ferric oxide (Fe2O3), that constitutes the most important iron ore because of its high iron content (70%) and its abundance.
Hematite