What are the different layers of the soil?

Answer 1

Top·soil - the upper fertile layer of soil from which plant roots take nutrients.

Hu·mus - a brown or black complex variable material resulting

from partial decomposition of plant or animal matter and forming

the organic portion of soil.

Eluviation - the transportation of dissolved or suspended material within

the soil by the movement of water when rainfall exceeds evaporation.

Regolith - the layer of loose rock particles that covers the bedrock of most land

on earth.

Bedrock - the solid rock beneath loose rock particles or soil.

Mineral - a solid homogeneous crystalline chemical element or compound

that results from the inorganic processes of nature; broadly : any of various

naturally occurring homogeneous substances (as stone, coal, salt, sulfur,

sand, petroleum, water, or natural gas) obtained usually from the ground.

Answer 2

Here is a small diagram to help you and i will describe each part briefly.

0 Horizon (Humus)

The top, mostly organic layer of soil, made up of leaf and humus (decomposed organic matter).

A horizon (topsoil)

This is where seeds germinate and plant roots grow. It is made up of humus (See above) mixed with minerals.

E horizon (eluviation layer)

This eluviation layer is light in color; It is made up of sand and silt, It has lost, however, most of its minerals and clay because of water dripping through soil (Process of eluviation)

B horizon (Subsoil)

Also called the subsoil, this contains clay and minerals such as calcium and iron. These get received from the layers above.

C horizon (regolith)

Also called regolith: It has slightly broken-up bedrock (From the layer below) And plant roots find it impossible to get into this layer, in fact, very little organic material is found in this layer at all!

R Horizon (Bedrock)

This is the untouched rock that lays dormant under all of the other busy soil layers. Another word for this layer is bedrock. Not much to say about thus as not much is happening.