What is a soil and what does it look like?
Soil is not simply 'powdered rock' or the 'top 10 cm of the ground surface', but a complex material produced by the interaction of five soil forming factors:
a complex material; five forming factors
Parent material:
The type of material in which the soil is formed (e.g., clay, sand, peat).
Climate:
Rainfall, temperature.
Living Organisms:
Plays a major role in the cycling of nutrients and in biochemical processes.
Time:
How long the soil has had to form and develop.
Topography:
Controls the movement of water, and largely determines erosion patterns.
Just as bread isn't simply a mixture of cooked flour and water, soil isn't simply a mixture of the five forming factors.
Soils may be regarded as complex and dynamic individual living bodies.
SOME COUNTRIES HAVE OIL; NEW ZEALAND
HAS SOIL