Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth’s surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion. Soil is different from its parent rock(s) source(s), altered by interactions between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and the biosphere. It is a mixture of mineral and organic constituents that are in solid, gaseous and aqueous states.