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| This picture demonstrates a beautifully sloping landscape and a great variety of vegetation. Soil is comprised mainly of four things: air, various minerals, organic matter and water. These components interact with all of our many spheres to do things like help plants grow. This is something very beneficial to humans in terms of nutrition and medicinal purposes. |
I learned in class that there needs to be cations exchanging the colloids to have good, happy dirt, which in turn increases the chance of successful plant growth. When there is a good CEC, brought on by flocculation, the soil will be healthy and fertile. I find it interesting just how long it takes for soil to settle, making it a pretty precious resource to us if it takes that long to develop.
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This lovely map of |
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| This picture, taken from a fellow traveler, shows a marvelous view from one of the many churches in Beziers. The grass looks so healthy, it must have a great pH balance! Towards the right in the above picture is a colorful and weathered rock which has frequently spaced fractures, or joints. |
Physical weathering uses the joints to split the rock into smaller pieces. When this happens, it speeds up the process of chemical weathering by increasing the surface area every time the rock splits.
At first I thought this rock could have been victim to salt weathering via crystallization. This occurs because of the water percolating through the cracks and forming crystals. However, this area of France receives a moderate amount of annual rainfall, thereby increasing the chance of washing the salt away.
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