Major types of soil in India :-
1. Alluvial soil deposits :-
- North India Part
- The rivers deposit very fine particles of soil in different parts of
India.
- The thickness of Alluvium in the Indo-Gangetic and Brahmputra flood
plains varies from a few metre to more than 100m.
- The Distinct characteristic of alluvial deposits is the existence of
alternating layers of sand, silt and clay. [ Loamy ]
2. Black cotton soils :-
- A large part of central India and a portion of South India.
- soil cover the plateau of Maharashtra, Saurashtra, malwa, M.P.,
Chhattisgarh,etc.
- Black in Colour.
- Suitable for growing cottons.
- Formed from Basalt or Trap rocks. [ Residual deposits ]
- soil contain essential Clay minerals as
Montmorillonite.
- Engineering properties :-
a) High plasticity
b) High Compressibility
c) Low bearing capacity
d) Low shearing strength
e) High shrinkage and swelling characteristics.
- very difficult to work with this soil.
3. Lateritic soils :-
- Found in Central, Eastern and southern India.
- Formed from Chemical decomposition of rocks.
- Mainly Contain Iron oxide And
Aluminum oxide.
- Due to presense of Iron oxide colour of soil is Pink or
Red.
- Residual soils, formed from Basalt.
4. Desert Soils [ arid soil ] :-
- Found in Rajasthan. [ Desert area ]
- This soil is formed from arid condition with practically negligible
rainfall.
- Highly previous and have a low density.
- Requires densification to increase its bearing capacity and shearing
strength.
- plants that grow in these soils are Cacti 🌵.
5. Marine Soils ( Marine deposits ) :-
- Found in narrow belt near the south-west coast of India.
- low shearing strength.
- High Compressibility.
- Marine clays are soft and highly plastic.
- They contain large amount of organic matter and are not
suitable for construction of megastructures like
big building ( malls, industrial, mills, etc. ), Cranes, etc.
6. Mountain soils :-
- found in the valleys and hill slopes of the Himalayas at altitudes of
2500m to 3000m.
- These soils are least studied and often the vegetation cover helps in
their classification.
- The carbon nitrogen ratio is very wide.
- They are silty loam to loam in texture and dark brown 🟤 in colour.
7. Red soils :-
- seen mainly in low rainfall area.
- Red colour due to ferric oxide. The lower layer is reddish yellow or
yellow.
- Red soils are generally derived from crystalline rock.
- They are usually poor growing soils, low in nutrients and humus and
difficult to cultivate because of its low water holding capacity.
8. Forest soils :-
- Regions of high rainfall.
- Humus content is less and thus the soil is acidic.
📌Soil Mechanics Notes till now :- 📄 👈 click
Complete soil mechanics notes :- update soon...