Sticky, clumping soil contains A) silica minerals. B) ...

[Mr. Wonderful]

Sticky, clumping soil contains
 
  A) silica minerals.
  B) organic matter.
  C) clay minerals.
  D) excess water.

Question 2

What factors determine soil characteristics?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[amit]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: C

Answer to Question 2

Answer: The factors determining soil characteristics are parent material, climate, vegetation, time, and landscape relief and location. Parent material determines which minerals dissolve and which precipitate during chemical weathering. Climate and vegetation are closely linked variables in soil formation. Vegetation is denser in moister climates and the combination of greater moisture and greater development of organic acids from decaying vegetation leads to soils with the most distinctive horizons. Soils mature through time, because the effects of chemical weathering add up. Soils generally become thicker and contain more clay or calcite or both in their B horizons with increasing age. Unchanging or very slow changing landscapes have mature soils. Unstable landscapes, where rates of erosion or deposition are faster than rates of soil formation, are marked by immature soils or no soil.