Types of soil in india

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 :- ðŸ“„ ðŸ‘ˆ click
Complete soil mechanics notes :- update soon...
Post a Comment (0)
Previous Post Next Post