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How does weathering contribute to soil formation?

seo-qna
Last updated date: 27th Jul 2024
Total views: 384k
Views today: 7.84k
Answer
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Hint: Weathering is the name given to the cycle by which rocks are broken to form soils. Soil is a material which is composed of five ingredients. These ingredients are minerals, soil organic matter, living organisms, gas, and water.

Complete answer:
Depending on the percentages of particles soil minerals are broadly divided into three size classes. Soil plays importance in mineral balance, agriculture and proper functioning of the food chain. It is the starting point of the food chain as plants grow only infertile soils with adequate mineral depositions.

Weathering is a vital piece of the cycle of soil arrangement, and the soil is basic to our existence on Earth. Rocks and topographical residue are the fundamental parent materials of soils There is a wide assortment of rocks on the planet, some acidic, some basic, some coarse-finished like sands, and some fine-finished and clayey. It is from the rocks and sediments that soils acquire their specific texture.

There are three fundamental sorts of weathering: physical, chemical and biological. Physical weathering is the impact of cycles, for example, freezing and thawing, wetting and drying, and contracting and growing on rocks and different residue, prompting their breakdown into finer particles. Chemical weathering is the disintegration of rocks through a progression of compound cycles, for example, acidification, dissolution and oxidation. A few minerals, while stable inside the strong stone, become less steady on being more exposed to the climate thus start to adjust in the stones close to the surface, destabilizing the stones. Biological weathering is the effect of living organisms on the breakdown of rock. This includes, for instance, the impacts of plant roots and soil life forms. Respiration of carbon dioxide by plant roots can prompt the development of carbonic corrosive which can synthetically attach rocks and residue and help to transform them into soils.

Note: These classes are clay, silt, and sand. The mineralogy and textures of soils are diverse. Soil textures dependent on topology, geographical conditions, climate, temperature and human activities.