Soil: The Wealth Beneath Your Feet

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Title: Soil: The Wealth Beneath Your Feet Purpose: The purpose of this investigation is to study the characteristics of different types of soil found around the school campus. Hypothesis: We think the soil sample will be all or partly clay because of the abundance of red clay in Georgia. Materials: Soil collection bag, sample of soil, shovel, water, 100 mL graduated cylinder, parafilm, weigh boat, digital scale, soil collection tube, stopwatch, percolation tubes, and pH paper Procedure: See lab sheet for 1-5. 6. To test pH, cut off a strip of pH paper and press it into the soil. Wait a minute and then take it out. Record the color and if it is not visible, wipe it on a towel until you can properly record the color. (7. was exempt) Data: Test Observations/data Soil collection Collected in a patch of land with vegetation- grass and clovers. It had recently rained. Color Mostly dark brown with some parts of lighter red Texture/ consistency Clumpy- big parts, but finer particles. Tends to stick, but could be moisture Composition Silt at top: 5 mL- grassy, light, medium sized particles Clay: 63 mL- light red, fine, no visible particles Sand at bottom: 32 mL- dark, coarse particles Moisture Weight of moist soil: 54.9 g Weight of dry soil: 39.5 g Soil moisture: 38.9% moisture Porosity 9 mL of water out of 55 mL = 16.36% pore space Percolation rate Water at start: 27 mL Water at end: 17 mL Time: 360 sec Percolation rate: 17/360= .0472 mL/sec pH ~8 Analysis: Test Observations/data Texture/ consistency Consistency of data shows it could be clay or maybe loam. Composition The soil composition was shown to be clay according to the handout provided. While performing the test and inverting the tube, some soil was lost, and this may have affected our results. Moisture The soil was very moist, but this might have been because of

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