Soil Texture

 Soil texture 

The solid phase of soil mass consists of particles of mineral and organic matter in various sizes and amounts.

The texture of soil is its appearance or feel and depends on the relative sizes and shapes of the particles as well as the range or distribution of those sizes.

Soils with respect to texture can be divided into two groups :

Coarse textured soils :

Coarse grained soils or light textured soils include gravels , sands and their mixtures.

Fine textured soils :

Fine grained or heavy textured soils contain grains of a very fine texture which are invisible to naked eye ( size less than 0.05 mm )

Slits and clays are fine textured soils.

For coarse textured soils , engineering behaviour is controlled by soil texture these soils are in general classified into various groups based on basis of grain sizes.

For fine grained soil , the presence of water greatly affects the engineering response.

Water affects the interaction between the mineral grains and this may affect their plasticity / consistency and their cohesiveness.

Fine grain soil are there fore classified on basis of their consistency.

Soil texture (such as loam, sandy loam or clay) refers to the proportion of sand, silt and clay sized particles that make up the mineral fraction of the soil. For example, light soil refers to a soil high in sand relative to clay, while heavy soils are made up largely of clay

What are the 3 soil textures?

Soil texture is usually a complex size distribution represented by the relative proportions of the three particle-size fractions (Staff, 1987): sand, silt, and clay.