Soil | Definition, Importance, Types, Erosion, Composition, & Facts

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• Introduction & Top Questions
• The soil profile
  • Soil horizons
  • Pedons and polypedons
• Soil behaviour
  • Physical characteristics
    • Grain size and porosity
    • Water runoff
  • Chemical characteristics
    • Mineral content
    • Organic content
  • Biological phenomena
• Soil formation
  • Parent material
  • Topography
  • Climate
  • Organisms
  • Time
• Soil classification
  • U.S. Soil Taxonomy
  • FAO soil groups
• Soil erosion
  • Erosive processes
  • Rates of soil erosion
  • Resistance to erosion
• Soils in ecosystems
  • Carbon and nitrogen cycles
  • Soils and global warming
• Soil pollution
  • Xenobiotic chemicals
  • Pathways of detoxification

References & Edit History Related Topics Images & Videos For Students soil summary Related Questions

• What is soil?
• What are the grain sizes in soil?
• What are the layers of soil?

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External Websites

• Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing - Pilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - The role of soils in habitat creation, maintenance and restoration
• National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Sustainable soil use and management: An interdisciplinary and systematic approach
• Seneca Polytechnic Pressbooks System - A Brief Introduction to Geology and Geomorphology - Weathering and Soils
• University of Minnesota Libraries - Environmental Biology - Soils
• Tulane University - Weathering and Soils
• The Spruce - What Is Soil? Get the Dirt on Dirt
• CORE - Soils and weathering
• Nature - Scitable - What are Soils?
• University of California - Agriculture and Natural Resources - An Introduction to Soil Concepts and the Role of Soils in Watershed Management (PDF)
• Royal Horticultural Society - Soil types
• Cell Press - Trends in Plant Science - Soil: the stuff of life
• Geology.com - Expansive Soil and Expansive Clay
• University of Mosul - Chapter two (Weathering and soils) (PDF)
• Openstax - Biology 2e - The Soil
• IOPscience - IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science - Healthy Soils for Productivity and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (PDF)
• Agriculture Victoria - Soil
• Biology LibreTexts - Soils
• Soil Science Society of America - Soil Basics
• Energy.gov - Soil

Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

• soil - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• soil - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Quick Summary Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Garrison Sposito Professor of ecosystem sciences, University of California at Berkeley. Author of The Chemistry of Soils. Garrison Sposito Fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Nov. 23, 2025 •History Table of Contents Table of Contents Quick Summary Ask the Chatbot a Question Top Questions

What is soil?

Soil is the biologically active and porous medium that has developed in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust. It serves as the reservoir of water and nutrients and a medium for the filtration and breakdown of injurious wastes. It also helps in the cycling of carbon and other elements through the global ecosystem.

What are the grain sizes in soil?

The grain size of soil particles are categorized into three groups: clay, silt, and sand. Clay measures less than 0.002 mm (0.0008 inch) in diameter, silt is between 0.002 mm (0.0008 inch) and 0.05 mm (0.002 inch), and sand is between 0.05 mm (0.002 inch) and 2 mm (0.08 inch).

What are the five factors of soil formation?

The evolution of soils and their properties is called soil formation, and according to pedologists, five fundamental soil formation processes influence soil properties. These five “state factors” are parent material, topography, climate, organisms, and time.

What are the layers of soil?

Soils have a unique structural characteristic that distinguishes them from mere earth materials: a vertical sequence of layers produced by the combined actions of percolating waters and living organisms. These layers are called horizons and are designated A horizon, B horizon, C horizon, E horizon, O horizon, and R horizon.

soil, the biologically active, porous medium that has developed in the uppermost layer of Earth’s crust. Soil is one of the principal substrata of life on Earth, serving as a reservoir of water and nutrients, as a medium for the filtration and breakdown of injurious wastes, and as a participant in the cycling of carbon and other elements through the global ecosystem. It has evolved through weathering processes driven by biological, climatic, geologic, and topographic influences.

Since the rise of agriculture and forestry in the 8th millennium bce, there has also arisen by necessity a practical awareness of soils and their management. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Industrial Revolution brought increasing pressure on soil to produce raw materials demanded by commerce, while the development of quantitative science offered new opportunities for improved soil management. The study of soil as a separate scientific discipline began about the same time with systematic investigations of substances that enhance plant growth. This initial inquiry has expanded to an understanding of soils as complex, dynamic, biogeochemical systems that are vital to the life cycles of terrestrial vegetation and soil-inhabiting organisms—and by extension to the human race as well.

This article covers the structure, composition, and classification of soils and how these factors affect soil’s role in the global ecosystem. In addition, the two most important phenomena that degrade soils, erosion and pollution, are discussed. For a cartographic guide to the distribution of the world’s major soils, featuring links to short descriptive entries on each soil type, see the interactive world map.

The soil profile

Soil horizons

Soils differ widely in their properties because of geologic and climatic variation over distance and time. Even a simple property, such as the soil thickness, can range from a few centimetres to many metres, depending on the intensity and duration of weathering, episodes of soil deposition and erosion, and the patterns of landscape evolution. Nevertheless, in spite of this variability, soils have a unique structural characteristic that distinguishes them from mere earth materials and serves as a basis for their classification: a vertical sequence of layers produced by the combined actions of percolating waters and living organisms.

These layers are called horizons, and the full vertical sequence of horizons constitutes the soil profile (see the figure). Soil horizons are defined by features that reflect soil-forming processes. For instance, the uppermost soil layer (not including surface litter) is termed the A horizon. This is a weathered layer that contains an accumulation of humus (decomposed, dark-coloured, carbon-rich matter) and microbial biomass that is mixed with small-grained minerals to form aggregate structures.

Below A lies the B horizon. In mature soils this layer is characterized by an accumulation of clay (small particles less than 0.002 mm [0.00008 inch] in diameter) that has either been deposited out of percolating waters or precipitated by chemical processes involving dissolved products of weathering. Clay endows B horizons with an array of diverse structural features (blocks, columns, and prisms) formed from small clay particles that can be linked together in various configurations as the horizon evolves.

Below the A and B horizons is the C horizon, a zone of little or no humus accumulation or soil structure development. The C horizon often is composed of unconsolidated parent material from which the A and B horizons have formed. It lacks the characteristic features of the A and B horizons and may be either relatively unweathered or deeply weathered. At some depth below the A, B, and C horizons lies consolidated rock, which makes up the R horizon.

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These simple letter designations are supplemented in two ways (see the table of soil horizon letter designations). First, two additional horizons are defined. Litter and decomposed organic matter (for example, plant and animal remains) that typically lie exposed on the land surface above the A horizon are given the designation O horizon, whereas the layer immediately below an A horizon that has been extensively leached (that is, slowly washed of certain contents by the action of percolating water) is given the separate designation E horizon, or zone of eluviation (from Latin ex, “out,” and lavere, “to wash”). The development of E horizons is favoured by high rainfall and sandy parent material, two factors that help to ensure extensive water percolation. The solid particles lost through leaching are deposited in the B horizon, which then can be regarded as a zone of illuviation (from Latin il, “in,” and lavere).

Soil horizon letter designations
Base symbols for surface horizons
O	organic horizoncontaining litter and decomposed organic matter
A	mineral horizon darkenedby humus accumulation
Base symbols for subsurface horizons
E	mineral horizon lighterin colour than an A or O horizon and depleted in clay minerals
AB or EB	transitional horizonmore like A or E than B
BA or BE	transitional horizonmore like B than A or E
B	accumulatedclay and humus below the A or E horizon
BC or CB	transitional horizonfrom B to C
C	unconsolidated earthmaterial below the A or B horizon
R	consolidated rock
Suffixes added for special features of horizons
a	highly decomposedorganic matter
b	buried horizon
c	concretions or hardnodules (iron, aluminum, manganese, or titanium)
e	organic matter ofintermediate decomposition
f	frozen soil
g	gray colour with strongmottling and poor drainage
h	accumulation of organicmatter
i	slightly decomposedorganic matter
k	accumulation ofcarbonate
m	cementation orinduration
n	accumulation of sodium
o	accumulation of oxidesof iron and aluminum
p	plowing or otheranthropogenic disturbance
q	accumulation of silica
r	weathered or softbedrock
s	accumulation of metaloxides and organic matter
t	accumulation of clay
v	plinthite (hardiron-enriched subsoil material)
w	development of colour orstructure
x	fragipan character(high-density, brittle)
y	accumulation of gypsum
z	accumulation of salts

The combined A, E, B horizon sequence is called the solum (Latin: “floor”). The solum is the true seat of soil-forming processes and is the principal habitat for soil organisms. (Transitional layers, having intermediate properties, are designated with the two letters of the adjacent horizons.)

The second enhancement to soil horizon nomenclature (also shown in the table) is the use of lowercase suffixes to designate special features that are important to soil development. The most common of these suffixes are applied to B horizons: g to denote mottling caused by waterlogging, h to denote the illuvial accumulation of humus, k to denote carbonate mineral precipitates, o to denote residual metal oxides, s to denote the illuvial accumulation of metal oxides and humus, and t to denote the accumulation of clay.

Pedons and polypedons

Soils are natural elements of weathered landscapes whose properties may vary spatially. For scientific study, however, it is useful to think of soils as unions of modules known as pedons. A pedon is the smallest element of landscape that can be called soil. Its depth limit is the somewhat arbitrary boundary between soil and “not soil” (e.g., bedrock). Its lateral dimensions must be large enough to permit a study of any horizons present—in general, an area from 1 to 10 square metres (10 to 100 square feet), taking into account that a horizon may be variable in thickness or even discontinuous. Wherever horizons are cyclic and recur at intervals of 2 to 7 metres (7 to 23 feet), the pedon includes one-half the cycle. Thus, each pedon includes the range of horizon variability that occurs within small areas. Wherever the cycle is less than 2 metres, or wherever all horizons are continuous and of uniform thickness, the pedon has an area of 1 square metre.

Key People: Curtis Fletcher Marbut Edmund Ruffin Selman Abraham Waksman (Show more) Related Topics: duricrust soil liquefaction horizon clay soil moisture (Show more) See all related content

Soils are encountered on the landscape as groups of similar pedons, called polypedons, that contain sufficient area to qualify as a taxonomic unit. Polypedons are bounded from below by “not soil” and laterally by pedons of dissimilar characteristics.