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I put together some facts about soil for another purpose and thought they might interest others.
- Soil is a living system.
- Soil contains 0.01% of the Earth’s water.
- Soil is 49% Oxygen, 33% Silicone, 7% Aluminum, 4% Iron, and 2% Carbon.
- Fifty percent of soil is air and water. The rest is mineral and organic material.
- In one gram of soil, the number of bacteria ranges from 100,000 to several billion.
- There are 5000 to 7000 different species of bacteria in one gram of soil.
- The total living matter in an acre of soil ranges from 5000 to 20,000 pounds.
- Each year, 15 tons of dry soil per acre pass through earthworms. Earthworms eat soil to get the organic materials in it. The rest passes through them.
- About 42 centuries ago, the Chinese used a soil map to determine taxation amounts.
- Soil develops from geologic materials such as rocks, glacial deposits, granite, limestone, and stream sediments.
- Soil influences the life spans of our roads and highways.
- The stability of the foundations of our houses and buildings are determined in part by the soil they rest on.
- Soil is much like the earth’s peel, similar to an orange peel.
- Erosion of soil from our lands clogs rivers and dams and decreases the usefulness of soil for growing plants.
- Soil is often at the bottom of the food chain. Plants and small invertebrates feed off of the soil and animals feed off of the plants.
- Soil is used to adsorb wastes.
- Over 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides worth 25 billion dollars are used each year, much of it ending up in the soil. That is over 4 pounds per person.
- Cleaning up toxic chemicals in the soil and water has cost $20 billion over the past 15 years in the United States.
- Cleaning up the rest of the toxic chemicals already in the environment would cost $500 to $2500 per person.
- The United States has at least 36,000 hazardous waste sites present in our soils.
- Soil supplies the water and nutrients necessary for plant growth.
- Around one acre of land is use to supply the food for each person in the world.
- An acre of corn gives off 4,000 gallons of water a day in evaporation.
- Soil needs to provide 4,000 gallons of water to grow one bushel of corn and 11,000 gallons of water to grow one bushel of wheat.
- Soil makes excellent mud pies.
Sydney Harper
1996
