Types of Parent Material
● Glacial Deposits - Deposits of rock, parent materials and soil left behind from the
great glaciers
● Loess Deposits - Deposits left by wind
● Alluvial Deposits - Deposits transported or left by streams
● Marine Deposits - Deposits left from ancient ocean floor
● Lacustrine Deposits - Deposits left by lakes
● Colluvial Deposits - Left by gravity
● Organic Deposits - Left in swampy and marshy areas
1. Peat - contains recognizable plant materials
2. Muck - completely decayed so that plant parts are no longer recognizable
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-Bedrock
● Buried by loess, outwash, glacial till, or alluvium
● Some has provided soil parent material
● About 2 percent of the soil in Illinois
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Types of rock
● Igneous - rock formed by cooling of molten
materials and pushed up to the earth's surface –
lava, magma
● Sedimentary - formed by solidification of sediment
(3/4 of the earth's surface is covered by this)
● Metamorphic - igneous or sedimentary rocks that
have been reformed because of great heat or
pressure
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-Organic Matter
● Formerly shallow ponds supported swamp vegetation
● Less than 1 percent of the soil in Illinois
● Two types of organic soil
____________________________________________________________________________
● Most soils in Illinois have been formed from
material originally moved by glaciers.
● Glacial Deposits - Deposits of rock, parent materials and soil left behind from the
great glaciers
● Loess Deposits - Deposits left by wind
● Alluvial Deposits - Deposits transported or left by streams
● Marine Deposits - Deposits left from ancient ocean floor
● Lacustrine Deposits - Deposits left by lakes
● Colluvial Deposits - Left by gravity
● Organic Deposits - Left in swampy and marshy areas
1. Peat - contains recognizable plant materials
2. Muck - completely decayed so that plant parts are no longer recognizable
____________________________________________________________________________
-Bedrock
● Buried by loess, outwash, glacial till, or alluvium
● Some has provided soil parent material
● About 2 percent of the soil in Illinois
____________________________________________________________________________
Types of rock
● Igneous - rock formed by cooling of molten
materials and pushed up to the earth's surface –
lava, magma
● Sedimentary - formed by solidification of sediment
(3/4 of the earth's surface is covered by this)
● Metamorphic - igneous or sedimentary rocks that
have been reformed because of great heat or
pressure
____________________________________________________________________________
-Organic Matter
● Formerly shallow ponds supported swamp vegetation
● Less than 1 percent of the soil in Illinois
● Two types of organic soil
____________________________________________________________________________
● Most soils in Illinois have been formed from
material originally moved by glaciers.
