ABSP - Soils

Soils

Words

Landscape & Landforms

arenaceous	having the appearance or consistency of sand.
arenose arenous	sandy; containing much sand.
argillaceous	containing clay; clay-like.
blackland	a heavy, sticky black soil such as that covering large areas of Texas.
blaes blaise blaize	a kind of clay, livid or red in colour. N.B. these do not take an —S.
brickclay	a clay containing sand and a good deal of iron; any clay used for brick-making.
brickearth	a clayey alluvium used for brick-making.
brunizem	a prairie soil.
calmy	clayey > CALMIER, CALMIEST.
cam caum calm	pale bluish-grey clay; (verb) to whiten with this.
channer	gravel, shingle.
chernozem tschernosem	a very fertile soil of sub-humid steppe. [Russian 'black earth'].
chesil	shingle, gravel.
clayey	of or like clay > CLAYIER, CLAYIEST.
clayish	partaking of the nature of clay, or containing particles of it.
claylike	like clay.
claypan	a layer of stiff, compact, relatively impervious clay which is not cemented (unlike CALICHE or HARDPAN).
clunch	an indurated clay.
diluvion diluvium	a deposit of superficial loam, sand, gravel, stones, etc., caused by former action of flowing waters, or the melting of glacial ice. The pl. of DILUVIUM is DILUVIA or DILUVIUMS.
edaphic	of or pertaining to the soil.
edaphology	the study of soils.
fango	clay or mud from thermal springs in Italy, used in curing gout. [Ital. fango, mud]. Pl. FANGOS.
glei gley	a sticky clay soil.
gleisation	the process of making a GLEI.
gleyed	having undergone GLEYING.
gleying	the development of GLEY, a sticky clay soil.
graile	gravel.
gravel	a mixture of rock fragments that is coarser than sand; (verb) to cover with gravel > GRAVELED/GRAVELLED.
gravelly	of or like GRAVEL.
gumbotil	a dark sticky clay, formed by the weathering of boulder clay or glacial drift.
gyttja	(Swedish) sediment found on a lake bottom.
hardpan	a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface, cemented by silica, iron oxide, calcium carbonate, or organic matter.
humous	of or like HUMUS, the generally dark, more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil.
humus	a dark brown or black colloidal mass of partially decomposed organic matter in the soil. Pl. HUMUSES.
humusy	having much HUMUS.
illuvial	relating to ILLUVIUM, material removed from soil layer by rainwater and deposited in lower layer.
illuviate	to deposit ILLUVIUM.
illuvium	material removed from soil layer by rainwater and deposited in lower layer. PL. ILLUVIUMS or ILLUVIA.
kieselguhr kieselgur	a soft diatomaceous earth used as an absorbent in explosives, a filtering medium, etc.
laterite	a highly weathered red soil rich in iron and aluminum oxides, typically formed in a tropical to temperate climate where intense chemical weathering is common.
lateritic	consisting of, containing, or characterized by, LATERITE; as, lateritic formations.
laterize laterise	to convert into LATERITE.
latosol	a tropical soil.
latosolic	of or like LATOSOL, a tropical soil.
leachy	permitting liquids to pass by percolation; porous > LEACHIER, LEACHIEST.
lithosol	a type of soil.
loam	to cover with loam.
loaminess	the state of being LOAMY.
loamless	having no loam.
loamy	like loam, fertile soil > LOAMIER, LOAMIEST.
loess	a fine-grained wind deposit of clay, sand, and silt.
loessal loessial loessic	relating to LOESS, a fine-grained wind deposit of clay, sand, and silt.
malm	a calcareous loam used in making brick.
malmstone	calcareous loam; earth of this kind, formerly used for making brick.
malmy	resembling MALM > MALMIER, MALMIEST.
marl	a mixture of clays, carbonates and ground-up shells used as a fertilizer; (verb) to marble.
marlacious	containing MARL.
marlite	marl with 25% to 75% clay, plus chalk.
marlitic	partaking of the qualities of MARLITE, marl with 25% to 75% clay, plus chalk.
marlstone	a sandy calcareous stratum, containing, or impregnated with, iron, and lying between the upper and lower Lias of England.
marly	of or like MARL > MARLIER, MARLIEST.
moder	a layer of HUMUS intermediate between MOR and MULL.
moondust	moon soil.
mor	HUMUS forming a discrete layer on top of the soil with little mineral soil mixed with it, characteristic of coniferous forests and generally strongly acid.
mudflow	a flow of mud.
mudslide	an avalanche of mud.
mull	a layer of humus formed by rapid decompostion, through the actions of a rich soil fauna, in near-neutral or alkaline conditions.
murram	a tough clayey gravel used as road metal in tropical Africa.
paleosol	a buried soil horizon of the geologic past.
peat	vegetable matter partly decomposed in wet acid conditions in bogs and fens to form a firm brown deposit resembling soil.
peaty	of or like PEAT > PEATIER, PEATIEST.
pedalfer	a type of soil, typical of a humid region.
pedocal	a generic term used to describe the soils typically found in an arid or semiarid region.
pedocalic	of or like PEDOCAL.
pedogenesis	the process of soil generation. Pl. PEDOGENESES.
pedogenic	relating to PEDOGENESIS, the process of soil generation.
permafrost	soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C.
pipeclay	a fine white clay forming a ductile paste with water, used esp. for making tobacco-pipes and whitening leather etc; (verb) to whiten with pipeclay.
planosol	a type of soil.
podsol podzol	a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates.
podzolization podzolisation podsolisation	the process by which soils are leached of bases and become acidic.
podsolic podzolic	relating to PODZOL, a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates.
podzolize podzolise podsolise podsolize	to make into a PODZOL, a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates.
regar regur	the rich black cotton soil of the Indian subcontinent.
regosol	a type of soil.
reh	an efflorescence of salts on soil in India.
rendzina	a fertile soil-type derived from calcium-rich bedrock.
sabuline	sandy.
sabulose sabulous	sandy; gritty; growing in sandy places. [L. sabulum, sand].
sandlike	like sand.
sandy	of or like sand > SANDIER, SANDIEST.
sandyish	somewhat sandy.
sierozem	a type of soil, grayish at the top and brownish below, based on a carbonate or hardpan layer. [Russian 'grey earth'].
silt	a fine deposit of mud, clay, etc., esp. one in a river or lake; (verb) to fill or become filled with silt.
silty	full of silt > SILTIER, SILTIEST.
soil	unconsolidated materials above bedrock.
solifluction	the turbulent movement of saturated soil or surficial debris.
solonchak	a pale or grey soil type found in arid to subhumid, poorly drained conditions.
solonets solonetz	an alkaline soil-type having a hard dark subsoil under a thin friable topsoil. Pl. SOLONETSES, SOLONETZES.
solonetzic	relating to SOLONETZ, a soil type.
solum	the surface layer of soil in which topsoil formation occurs. Pl. SOLUMS.
spodosol	a type of ashy soil.
terramara	a dark earthy deposit formed under prehistoric pile-dwellings in Italy. Pl. TERRAMARE, not TERRAMARAS*. But TERRAMARE is also a singular, see below, with pl. TERRAMARES.
terramare	= TERRAMARA.
tschernosem	see CHERNOZEM.
underclay	a stratum of clay lying beneath a coal bed, often containing the roots of coal plants, especially the Stigmaria.
undersoil	the soil beneath the surface; subsoil.
yarfa yarpha	in Shetland, peaty soil; clayey, sandy or fibrous peat. [ON jorfi, gravel].

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