“The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is”. Democritus (c. 460 – c. 370 BC). What is clay? Clays are particles. Very, very small mineral particles. You cannot see them, you cannot handle them… but unity makes strength. Clays are one of the major mineral components of the soil, whose chemical and physical properties depend on them. The study of soil clay minerals allows a gen ...[Read More]
Soil color never lies
Often, soil color is described using general terms such as “brown”, “red”, “dark”, etc. When I talk about this issue for the first time with my students of Soil Science, I use to ask them how to describe the color of a soil sample. Normally, in a few seconds, I get a list of color names ranging from dark brown to bright red, including “chocolate”, “coffee” and “ ...[Read More]
Soils at Imaggeo: Pores in ‘heart-shaped’ pyrite aggregate in clay
Susanne Hemes (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) The image was taken using a ‘Zeiss – Supra55’ Scanning Electron Microscope at 15,000x magnification and 10kV electron acceleration voltage, as part of my PhD work on the porosity in fine- and coarse-grained Boom Clay samples. The picture shows pores in framboidal pyrite aggregates, embedded in a fine-grained clay matrix. Boom Clay i ...[Read More]