APES 10 Things-Soil

APES – 10 Things to Know: Soil & Mining

1.Soils are composed of four different components which include: minerals, water, gas, and humus.

• Soil’s controlling factors are parent material, environment, and age., some other soil properties include texture, pH, permeability, porosity, and nutrient levels- Nitrogen/ Phosphorous.

2.Parent Materials get into soils through weathering.

• Weathering- Any process where rock breaks down (changes chemically and physically)

3.The textures of soil include Sand (largest), Silt (Silt), Clay (Small), and Loam (Mixture of all three).

4.Porosity- Volume of pores/ spaces per volume of soil

• Permeability- Rate of Flow of materials through soil (infiltration- water permeating through soil)

5.Layers of Soil = soil horizons

• “O”- organic litter derived from dead plants and animals.
• “A” Topsoil - Includes humus – nutrient rich soil made of decomposed organic litter

6.Three main causes of soil degradation: cropland agriculture (removes nutrients and causes desertification), grazing & deforestation (erosion & desertification)

7.Deforestation can cause erosion. Erosion results in poor soils with low nutrients, which occurs through the dehydration of soil.

8.Farmers try to mitigate the nutrient depletion of crops by using fertilizers

• Inorganic: chemical compounds created
• Does not add humus, supplies limited number of nutrients
• Fast acting, doesn’t last long
• Leads to leaching and groundwater contamination
• Organic: manure, compost, crop residue (green manure)
• Improves texture, adds nitrogen, stimulates bacteria, ADDS HUMUS
• Helps prevent erosion
• Broken down slowly

9.Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or (coal) seam.

• Placer mining involves any type of mining where raw minerals are deposited in sand or gravel or on the surface and are picked up without having to drive, use dynamite or any other significant means. Ex. panning for gold in a stream bed
• Open pit mines involve digging large open holes in the ground as opposed to a small shaft in hard rock mining. This method of mining is most often used with minerals like copper and molybdenum. Open pit mines are very large and devastate the surrounding landscape.
• Strip mining is a form of surface mining. The ore is close to the surface of the land but has one or more layers of rock and dirt on top of it. To mine the ore, these layers have to be taken off causing overburden. Coal in TN is mines by contour strip mining

10.There can be massive "cons" to the environment

• The processing of the ore can require a chemical process - Gold mining for example gives you cyanide leaching
• Acid mine drainage
• habitat loss & fragmentation
• erosion & loss of topsoil
• dangerous to miners