Md. Figueiredo et al., Mineralogy, size, morphology and porosity of aggregates and their relationship with soil susceptibility to water erosion, HYPER INTER, 122(1-2), 1999, pp. 177-184
Soil erosion has been considered as the main process related to losses of s
oil mass and decrease of productivity in cultivated lands as well as one of
the most important processes in landscape evolution. Attention has been pa
id to many pedological variables affecting intensity of erosion, but little
to the influence of iron compounds on the type, size, shape and porosity o
f soil aggregates. In the present study, three lithopedodomains which were
assumed to be closely related to the dominant lithology of the soil parent
material, varying in the degree of water erosion intensity, were selected f
or further analysis which focused mainly on the influence of iron oxide min
eralogy on the soil aggregation. Powder X-ray diffractometry, 80 K Mossbaue
r data and SEM images are used to correlate all these variables with observ
ed erosion activity in the field. The present data indicate that the more t
he soil is rich in iron (hematite and/or goethite) or aluminium (gibbsite)
(hydr)oxide, the smaller are its aggregates and is porous. Soils derived fr
om metabasic rocks are much more susceptible to collapse under wetting than
those from other lithologies. They have the highest iron and clay content.
Schist-derived soil is richer in muscovite, has bigger aggregates and poro
us and are less prone to collapse, while the granite-derived soil presents
relatively intermediate resistance, when humid.