Soil may be thought of as an incidental material in the vast geological cycle which has been going on continuously and relentlessly throughout the hundreds of million of years of the geologic time.
This cycle may be considered as consisting of three principle phases:
1) Erosion.
2) Transportation and deposition.
3) Earth movement (uplift).
There are two main processes responsible for the erosion of the exposed rocks including chemical and physical processes. The products of these degradations are picked up by different agents of the transportation such as the wind, water or moving ice. These agents carry the eroded material to new locations where they deposited as soil material in various landforms. This shifting of the position of the material in the surface disturbs the equilibrium of the forces in the crustal structure of the earth. These cause the earth movements which may expose the additional rock formations to the erosive forces.
Geological cycle is neither a straight forward nor proceeds at the same rate at all points of he earth's surfaces and at all periods of the geological time. If several complete and partially complete cycles are imagined as having been superimposed one upon the other, same concepts of the incidental and heterogeneous nature if soil may be gained.
This cycle may be considered as consisting of three principle phases:
1) Erosion.
2) Transportation and deposition.
3) Earth movement (uplift).
There are two main processes responsible for the erosion of the exposed rocks including chemical and physical processes. The products of these degradations are picked up by different agents of the transportation such as the wind, water or moving ice. These agents carry the eroded material to new locations where they deposited as soil material in various landforms. This shifting of the position of the material in the surface disturbs the equilibrium of the forces in the crustal structure of the earth. These cause the earth movements which may expose the additional rock formations to the erosive forces.
Geological cycle is neither a straight forward nor proceeds at the same rate at all points of he earth's surfaces and at all periods of the geological time. If several complete and partially complete cycles are imagined as having been superimposed one upon the other, same concepts of the incidental and heterogeneous nature if soil may be gained.