Parent Material
The mineral material from which a soil forms is called parent material. Rock, whether its origin is igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic, is the source of all soil mineral materials and origin of all plant nutrients with the exceptions of nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon. As the parent material is chemically and physically weathered, transported, deposited and precipitated, it is transformed into a soil.
Typical soil mineral materials are:
- Quartz: SiO2
- Calcite: CaCO3
- Feldspar: KAlSi3O8
- Mica (biotite): K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(OH)2
Read more about this topic: Soil, Soil Forming Factors
Famous quotes containing the words parent and/or material:
“My father’s father, his father’s father, his—
Shadows like winds
Go back to a parent before thought, before speech,
At the head of the past.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“A material resurrection seems strange and even absurd except for purposes of punishment, and all punishment which is to revenge rather than correct must be morally wrong, and when the World is at an end, what moral or warning purpose can eternal tortures answer?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)