Soils, Drainage and Runoff Lab
Goal 1: Classify soils by grain size
Soil has sometimes been called ‘the humble remains of once proud bedrock.’
It is created from the leftovers that remain behind after a rock is broken down by weathering.
Geologists generally classify soil based on
the grain size of its mineral particles.
These fall into three categories:
Sand: gritty
Silt: dusty
Clay: fine and sticky
Here’s how to read the soil triangle. If you get stuck,
watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=y4xndouxWPY
1. If a soil survey tells you that you have a ‘sandy clay loam’ on your property, what does your soil have in
most abundance: sand, silt or clay?
Sand
2. If you send your soil out for a test and find out that it contains 75% silt and 25% clay, what kind of soil do you
have?
Slit loam
3. Pure loam is considered to be the best kind of soil for a farm or garden and is often defined as a soil with
roughly equal proportions of sand, silt, and clay. Is that what the diagram shows?
Yes it does show them to be about equal in pure loam.
Goal 2: Run soil drainage experiments
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-10-2023 10:43:41 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/76755287/Copy-of-Soils-Drainage-and-Runoff-Labdocx/
, This set of questions uses the website located at this address:
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/CT02/CT02.html
In this part of the lab, you will simulate the soil type by moving the sliding bars in the “Soil Meter” to the left or
right. The name of the soil will appear as you move the bars. Once you have your soil composition set, click
test soil and wait as soil will be poured into your funnel. Then click “pour water” and wait until 1 one drop of
water falls into your beaker. Record the percentages of each soil component and the total amount of water (ml)
that had to be added before any water was able to drain through the soil.
Soil Type Percentages Amount of water
needed to drain
Sand Silt Clay
Heavy Clay --- --- 100% 58ml
Silty Clay 0 50 50 54ml
Silty Clay Loam 0 70 30 52ml
Silt --- 100% --- 39ml
Silt Loam 30 70 0 41ml
Loam 40 40 25 45ml
Sandy Loam 60 20 20 37ml
Loamy Sand 80 20 20 27ml
Sand 100% --- --- 26ml
Answer the following questions based on your virtual experiments:
1. Which type of soil drained the fastest (IE, the least amount of water needed to be added in order for a drip to
appear)? Why do you think that soil drained so well?
Sand drained the fastest because there is plenty of space between sand particles for water to flow through
which makes it drained much faster.
2. If you were farming on that type of soil, what kinds of problems would you have?
Sand drains so quickly that extremely sandy soil needs to be watered more often because the sand will not
retain water long enough for plant roots to have good access to the moisture before it drains away.
3. Which type of soil drained the slowest (most amount of water needed to be added)?
Heavy clay took the longest to drain.
4. If you were farming on that type of soil, what kinds of problems would you have?
They hold more water than sandy soils and are often high in nutrients plants need. But clay soils can become
so waterlogged that they deprive plant roots of oxygen, or so dry that they become too hard to dig in.
Goal 3: Discover the soils we live on and the drainages we live in.
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-10-2023 10:43:41 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/76755287/Copy-of-Soils-Drainage-and-Runoff-Labdocx/
Goal 1: Classify soils by grain size
Soil has sometimes been called ‘the humble remains of once proud bedrock.’
It is created from the leftovers that remain behind after a rock is broken down by weathering.
Geologists generally classify soil based on
the grain size of its mineral particles.
These fall into three categories:
Sand: gritty
Silt: dusty
Clay: fine and sticky
Here’s how to read the soil triangle. If you get stuck,
watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=y4xndouxWPY
1. If a soil survey tells you that you have a ‘sandy clay loam’ on your property, what does your soil have in
most abundance: sand, silt or clay?
Sand
2. If you send your soil out for a test and find out that it contains 75% silt and 25% clay, what kind of soil do you
have?
Slit loam
3. Pure loam is considered to be the best kind of soil for a farm or garden and is often defined as a soil with
roughly equal proportions of sand, silt, and clay. Is that what the diagram shows?
Yes it does show them to be about equal in pure loam.
Goal 2: Run soil drainage experiments
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-10-2023 10:43:41 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/76755287/Copy-of-Soils-Drainage-and-Runoff-Labdocx/
, This set of questions uses the website located at this address:
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/science/virtual_labs/CT02/CT02.html
In this part of the lab, you will simulate the soil type by moving the sliding bars in the “Soil Meter” to the left or
right. The name of the soil will appear as you move the bars. Once you have your soil composition set, click
test soil and wait as soil will be poured into your funnel. Then click “pour water” and wait until 1 one drop of
water falls into your beaker. Record the percentages of each soil component and the total amount of water (ml)
that had to be added before any water was able to drain through the soil.
Soil Type Percentages Amount of water
needed to drain
Sand Silt Clay
Heavy Clay --- --- 100% 58ml
Silty Clay 0 50 50 54ml
Silty Clay Loam 0 70 30 52ml
Silt --- 100% --- 39ml
Silt Loam 30 70 0 41ml
Loam 40 40 25 45ml
Sandy Loam 60 20 20 37ml
Loamy Sand 80 20 20 27ml
Sand 100% --- --- 26ml
Answer the following questions based on your virtual experiments:
1. Which type of soil drained the fastest (IE, the least amount of water needed to be added in order for a drip to
appear)? Why do you think that soil drained so well?
Sand drained the fastest because there is plenty of space between sand particles for water to flow through
which makes it drained much faster.
2. If you were farming on that type of soil, what kinds of problems would you have?
Sand drains so quickly that extremely sandy soil needs to be watered more often because the sand will not
retain water long enough for plant roots to have good access to the moisture before it drains away.
3. Which type of soil drained the slowest (most amount of water needed to be added)?
Heavy clay took the longest to drain.
4. If you were farming on that type of soil, what kinds of problems would you have?
They hold more water than sandy soils and are often high in nutrients plants need. But clay soils can become
so waterlogged that they deprive plant roots of oxygen, or so dry that they become too hard to dig in.
Goal 3: Discover the soils we live on and the drainages we live in.
This study source was downloaded by 100000857952895 from CourseHero.com on 01-10-2023 10:43:41 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/76755287/Copy-of-Soils-Drainage-and-Runoff-Labdocx/
