What is soil? | (Uses,Importance)

What is soil explained?

For a Civil Engineer, Soil means all naturally occurring, relatively unconsolidated earth material-organic or inorganic in character that lies above the bedrock. Soil is composed of solid particles, produced by the disintegration or decomposition of rocks.  The void space between them may contain air or water or both.

    Soil is the sediment or other unconsolidated accumulation of solid particles produced by physical and chemical disintegration of rocks.

Father Of Soil Mechanics “Dr. Karl Terzaghi”, first invented the term Soil Mechanics in 1925.

According to Terzaghi, ‘Soil Mechanics is the application of laws of mechanics and hydraulics to engineering problems dealing with sediments and other unconsolidated accumulations of solid particles produced by the mechanical and chemical disintegration of rocks, regardless of whether or not they contain an admixture of organic constituents.

He wrote the book Erdbaumechanik

Soil Engineering, includes soil mechanics, geology, structural engineering, soil dynamics, and disciplines related to obtaining solutions to practical soil problems.

This is an applied science dealing with the applications of principles of soil mechanics to a practical problem. It has a much wider scope than soil Mechanics, as it deals with all engineering problems related to soils. It includes site investigations, design and construction of foundations, earth retaining structures, and earth structures.

Importance of soil

    Soil is as important as air and water we can't live without it. Soil puts food on our plates, purifies our water, protects us against flooding and combats drought.

used as a foundation material in old times.

Uses of soil 

• Soil is the main component of agricultural land.
• We can extract different kinds of minerals, metals, and chemical components from the soil.
• It is the ultimate foundation material that supports the structure.

     • It is the most abundant building material.

     • Soil structure interaction needs to be studied for excavation, Earth retaining structures, etc.

Geotechnical Engineering is a term that includes soil engineering, rock mechanics, and geology. Sometimes geotechnical engineering is also known as soil engineering.

After this, we will study the origin of the soil….