Ministry of education and science of Ukraine

Zhytomyr State Technological University

The Faculty of Mining and Ecology

Done by

Student of EO-27 group

Lida Melnychuk

Property of Irshansks` soils

Checked Nataliya Kurnosova

Zhytomyr

2014

Plan

Introduction……………………………………………………………. 1.Property of Irshansk`s soil…………………………………………..	3 4
1.1.Texture………………………………………………..	6
1.2.Structure……………………………………………...	7
1.3.Soil water……………………………………………..	9
1.4.Density………………………………………………..	11
1.5.Porosity……………………………………………….	12
1.6.Consistency…………………………………………...	12
1.7.Temperature…………………………………………..	13
1.8.Colour………………………………………………...	14
1.9.Resistivity…………………………………………….	15
2.Conclusion…………………………………………………………….	15
References……………………………………………………………….	16

Introduction

My investigation is researches of properties of Irshansk`s soil. Irshansk is a town in Volodarsk-Volynskyi Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukraine. Mining and Processing Plant is a main plant of Irshansk. Irshansk`s soil is the mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids, and the myriad of organisms that together support plant life. It is a natural body that exists as part of the pedosphere and which performs four important functions: it is a medium for plant growth; it is a means of water storage, supply and purification; it is a modifier of the atmosphere; and it is a habitat for organisms that take part in decomposition of organic matter and the creation of a habitat for new organisms.

Soil is considered to be the "skin of the earth" with interfaces between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Soil consists of a solid phase (minerals and organic matter) as well as a porous phase that holds gases and water. Accordingly, soils are often treated as a three-state system.

Soil is the end product of the influence of the climate, relief (elevation, orientation, and slope of terrain), biotic activities (organisms), and parent materials (original minerals) interacting over time. Soil continually undergoes development by way of numerous physical, chemical and biological processes, which include weathering with associated erosion.

1.Property of Irshansk`s soil

The physical properties of soils, in order of decreasing importance, are texture, structure, density, porosity, consistency, temperature, colour and resistivity. Most of these determine the aeration of the soil and the ability of water to infiltrate and to be held in the soil. Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil particles, called soil "separates": sand, silt, and clay. Larger soil structures called "peds" are created from the separates when iron oxides, carbonates, clay, and silica with the organic constituent humus, coat particles and cause them to adhere into larger, relatively stable secondary structures. Soil density, particularly bulk density, is a measure of soil compaction. Soil porosity consists of the part of the soil volume occupied by gases and water. Soil consistency is the ability of soil to stick together. Soil temperature and colour are self-defining. Resistivity refers to the resistance to conduction of electric currents and affects the rate of corrosion of metal and concrete structures. The properties may vary through the depth of a soil profile.

Generalized Influence of Soil Separates on Some properties of Soils

Property/behavior	Sand	Silt	Clay
Water-holding capacity	Low	Medium to high	High
Aeration	Good	Medium	Poor
Drainage rate	High	Slow to medium	Very slow
Soil organic matter level	Low	Medium to high	High to medium
Decomposition of organic matter	Rapid	Medium	Slow
Warm-up in spring	Rapid	Moderate	Slow
Compactability	Low	Medium	High
Susceptibility to wind erosion	Moderate (High if fine sand)	High	Low
Susceptibility to water erosion	Low (unless fine sand)	High	Low if aggregated, otherwise high
Shrink/Swell Potential	Very Low	Low	Moderate to very high
Sealing of ponds, dams, and landfills	Poor	Poor	Good
Suitability for tillage after rain	Good	Medium	Poor
Pollutant leaching potential	High	Medium	Low (unless cracked)
Ability to store plant nutrients	Poor	Medium to High	High
Resistance to pH change	Low	Medium	High

Most soils have a density between 1 and 2 g/cm3. Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, although fossilized soils are preserved from as far back as the Archean.

A - represents soil; B - represents laterite, a regolith; C - represents saprolite, a less-weathered regolith; the bottom-most layer represents bedrock