Question

Soil is composed of distinct layers. Write in brief an experiment to show this.​

Answer 1

Answer:

Soil is made up of distinct layers, called horizons. The simplest soils have three horizons: topsoil (A horizon), subsoil (B horizon), and C horizon. Each layer has characteristics that make it different from all of the other layers. These characteristics play a very important role in what the soil is used for and why it is important.

Answer 2

Answer:

Answer:-Soil is made up of a mixture of sand, silt, clay and rotted plant (organic) material. Different soil types have differing percentages of each. The jam jar soil experiment helps you to understand what the proportions of these are for the soil you work with. You should try this experiment with soils from different areas and compare the results to see how soils vary. Try it also with the soils you get in bags from garden centres for growing seeds and see how that varies from your garden soil.

Step One

Take a clean, straight-sided jam jar and fill it about a third of the way up with the soil you are experimenting with. Also have ready another jar of clean water and a stirring stick.

Step Two

Now add the clear water until the jar of soil is almost full.

Step Three

Now use a stirring stick to stir up the mixture really thoroughly.

Step Four

Now leave the jar for one hour so the contents settle out and the water can start to clear.

Step Five

Now the water has settled out, you should be able to see different layers appearing. Sand particles are the biggest and weigh more than silt - so the bottom layer will be the sand part of the soil. Any pebbles will also be at the bottom. Next up is the silt layer. Silt particles are smaller than sand and weigh less so they appear over the sand. If you were able to separate out any clay particles they are the smallest and will be on top. If your soil is really thick clay then you may just be left with clay lumps at the bottom, Next up you will have the water. This is likely to be discoloured. The colouring is likely to be rotted plant (organic) material that is soluble (it's dissolved). Finally, at the top will be floating organic material which isn't fully rotted.

Explanation: