News tagged with soil
Soviet find of water on the Moon in the 1970s ignored by the West
(Phys.org) -- In August 1976 Luna 24 landed on the moon and returned to Earth with samples of rocks, which were found to contain water, but this finding was ignored by scientists in the West.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jun 01, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (39) |
38
|
Thawing permafrost 50 million years ago led to extreme global warming events
In a new study reported in Nature, climate scientist Rob DeConto of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues elsewhere propose a simple new mechanism to explain the source of carbon that fed a ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 04, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (28) |
47
|
Russia may lose 30% of permafrost by 2050
Russia's vast permafrost areas may shrink by a third by the middle of the century due to global warming, endangering infrastructure in the Arctic zone, an emergencies ministry official said Friday.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 29, 2011 |
4 / 5 (22) |
7
Conservatism saved Iceland from catastrophe
The people of medieval Iceland survived disaster by sticking with traditional practices, an innovative new study suggests.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Mar 22, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (17) |
16
|
Study: 800-year-old farmers could teach us how to protect the Amazon
In the face of mass deforestation of the Amazon, we could learn from its earliest inhabitants who managed their farmland sustainably. Research from an international team of archaeologists and paleoecologists, ...
Apr 09, 2012 |
5 / 5 (14) |
7
|
Thawing tundra a new climate threat
(PhysOrg.com) -- A significant source of greenhouse gases has started leaking into the Earth's atmosphere from an unlikely place. Above the Arctic Circle, land frozen for tens of thousands of years has begun ...
Jan 20, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (15) |
11
Largest recorded tundra fire yields scientific surprises
In 2007 the largest recorded tundra fire in the circumpolar arctic released approximately as much carbon into the atmosphere as the tundra has stored in the previous 50 years, say scientists in the July 28 ...
Jul 27, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (12) |
3
|
Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600 million year drought, say scientists
Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analysing ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Feb 03, 2012 |
4.3 / 5 (13) |
10
|
Scientists refute Greenpeace claim that genetically modified corn caused new insect pest
An article in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Integrated Pest Management (JIPM) refutes claims by Greenpeace Germany that the western bean cutworm (WBC), Striacosta albicosta (Smith), is "a new plant pest" that wa ...
Jan 06, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (13) |
4
Thawing permafrost could release vast amounts of carbon, accelerate climate change by the end of this century
(PhysOrg.com) -- Billions of tons of carbon trapped in high-latitude permafrost may be released into the atmosphere by the end of this century as the Earth’s climate changes, further accelerating global ...
Aug 23, 2011 |
4 / 5 (13) |
77
|
Russians desperately try to save Mars moon probe (Update)
A Russian space probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth after equipment failure Wednesday, and scientists raced to fire up its engines before the whole thing came crashing down.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 09, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
83
It works! Human-powered drill strikes water in Tanzania
A human-powered drill built by a team of BYU engineering students was meant to be inexpensive, easy to operate and easy to move. Field tests in Tanzania have shown the drill does just what it's supposed to do.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 15, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (9) |
5
Global warming may affect the capacity of trees to store carbon, study finds
One helpful action anyone can take in response to global warming is to plant trees and preserve forests. Trees and plants capture carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, thereby removing the most abundant greenhouse ...
May 25, 2011 |
4 / 5 (10) |
15
|
Solar wind samples give insight into birth of solar system
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two papers in this week's issue of Science report the first oxygen and nitrogen isotopic measurements of the Sun, demonstrating that they are verydifferent from the same elements on Earth. ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jun 23, 2011 |
5 / 5 (8) |
5
|
Cosmic rays alter chemistry of lunar ice
Space scientists from the University of New Hampshire and multi-institutional colleagues report they have quantified levels of radiation on the moon's surface from galactic cosmic ray (GCR) bombardment that ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 19, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
1
|
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes that include weathering and erosion. Soil differs from its parent rock due to interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere. It is a mixture of mineral and organic constituents that are in solid, gaseous and aqueous states. Soil particles pack loosely, forming a soil structure filled with pore spaces. These pores contain sol solution (liquid) and air (gas). Accordingly, soils are often treated as a three state system. Most soils have a density between 1 and 2 g/cm³. Soil is also known as earth: it is the substance from which our planet takes its name. Little of the soil composition of planet Earth is older than Tertiary and most no older than Pleistocene. In engineering, soil is referred to as regolith, or loose rock material.
For more information about Soil, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
