Question

With reference to red soils in India, answer the following question. State two advantages of this type of soil.

Answer 1

Hint: Under deciduous or mixed forests the group of soils that are developed in a temperate, warm, moist climate and have thin organic and organic-mineral layers on an illuvial red layer is called Red soil. The color of the soil indicates the texture, consistency and structure.

Complete answer:
Red soil is a special type of soil and is classified as Kunigami maaji in geological terms, it also covers the greater part of Okinawa Island. The formation of this soil takes place from weathering of rocks, the parent rocks of this soil are of various types such as sandstone, phyllite and andesite.
The main features of red soil are:
1. The red soil is highly weathered
2. The red soil contains Kalinite, a clay material.
3. The red soil’s specific gravity is high which is from (2.6 to 2.8).
4. The red soil does not cause social problems by entering it into the sea which causes serious damage to the coral reefs along the coast when it is washed away out to the sea.
The advantages of red soil are:
1. Red soil has better drainage capacity compared to other soils and the soil is porous, fine grained and fertile in nature.
2. Red soils also have higher iron, lime content and aluminium.
3. Red soil has a high acidic nature.
4. Red soils are poor growing soils and are formed from the iron-rich sedimentary rock.
5. They are in low nutrients, humus and are difficult to cultivate.
6. Red soil also responds to fertilizers.

Note:
Oxidized ferric iron oxides presence is indicated in red soil
 The red color could be mainly due to the occurrence of ferric oxides on the soil particles as thin coatings, while the iron oxide occurs as hematite or as hydrous ferric oxide, the color is red.