Abstract
To geologists and soil scientists, soil is a surface layer of variable thickness formed in the open atmosphere by the physical, chemical and biochemical alteration of pre-existing rock materials, to which humic substances are added. In many instances, soils are underlain by unlithified, partly weathered rock known as regolith, but this is not considered as being true soil because the breakdown is predominantly inorganic in character.
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© 1989 J. T. Greensmith
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Greensmith, J.T. (1989). Soils. In: Petrology of the Sedimentary Rocks. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9640-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9640-6_2
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