What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?
In general, it takes about 1000 years to form 1cm of new soil.
In general, it takes about 1000 years to form 1cm of new soil.
Reposted from
vortex egg, MLIS
What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?
We’re not clear on what *information* is, at all
We’re not clear on what *information* is, at all
Comments
Soil is a specific thing.
It is a combination of mineral particles (sand, silt, and clay) and organic matter particles that are so small they can't be picked out - they're what colour soil black.
Compost, biochar, and pond scum are not soil.
That's why it's so slow.
They are found in peatlands (fens and bogs). The organic soil layers are not distinguishably plants. If you can still ID peat moss, it's not soil.
Soil and soil constituents are translocated all the time. Think about how much sand kids haul home from the playground.
It still had to form first.
https://bsky.app/profile/sapphixy.bsky.social/post/3lrvec6ojqs2z
So our policy of issuing reclamation certificates within 10 years is just bonkers.
Also, when buildings crumble into dust, they're creating a lot of small mineral particles way faster than usually happens in nature.
I don't know that anyone has studied soil formation in urban settings with adequate detail to have such a time estimate.
Also *soil* is a particular thing and I don't know how often urban soils are *it*.
Neat. Neat! Thank you, now I have a new Interesting Fact to pull out from time to time.
Soil is a combination of organic and mineral components and swamps can be pretty limited on the mineral soil evolution side of things.
Dead vegetation is just litter until it decays enough to be incorporated with the actual mineral material as particulates