Talk:Soil/Archive 4

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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130216231052/http://soils.missouri.edu/tutorial/page9.asp to http://soils.missouri.edu/tutorial/page9.asp
 * Added tag to ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/Soil_Taxonomy/tax.pdf
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Length
Shouldn't this article be divided up into several different ones, or shortened altogether? Its length goes well above what is advised in WP:SIZERULE. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RajanD100 (talk • contribs) 15:52, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I think so. Don't lose any information, but come up with a rational scheme of sub-articles to capture the detailed info, leaving a very brief summary and link in the main article. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 17:50, 20 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Personally I think the best way of splitting would be to move the Physical Properties section to a page named Physical Properties of Soil or something similar, and to move the Composition of the solid phase (soil matrix) section to a page named Soil Matrix or something similar.


 * Also, I think the Degradation section could be removed. All of the material in the Degradation section is just restating information that is elsewhere and/or is unsourced. For example, the Soil Acidification, Desertification and Erosion paragraphs within the Degradation section are completely unsourced.


 * I think this would be a good start to slimming down the size of this article. Kenneth SweezyTalk to me..... Please? 03:44, 28 January 2020 (UTC)


 * All the paragraphs in the "Degradation " section have been sourced since Kenneth Sweezy's comment.
 * Chidgk1's removal of the "Degradation" section on 07 March 2021 has removed all mention of soil acidification and desertification from the article and reduced erosion to 5 uninformative passing mentions. I think this is not an improvement. I suggest that the "Degredation" section should be restored to allow a new short summary version of it to be created combined with added "Main article" wikilinks to relevant detailed articles. GeoWriter (talk) 16:45, 7 March 2021 (UTC)
 * GeoWriter please go ahead - I am sure you know better than me. I was just trying to get things moving on a decision on whether or not to split the article. Chidgk1 (talk) 14:23, 8 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I see that Jfponge has already restored this section of the article (at 08:44 on 8 March 2021).GeoWriter (talk) 13:32, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
 * So have you decided yet whether to split this very important article or not? Chidgk1 (talk) 14:57, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
 * This could be done by letting the introductory part of the Soil moisture section in the Soil wikipage and putting the rest of the section in a new wikipage entitled Soil moisture. However I am technically unable to perform that. Anyway, deleting the entire Soil moisture section (as this had been done by Chidgk1 and further restored by me) is quite undesirable, like if one of my arms had been cut away. Is somebody able to perform this splitting correctly? Jfponge 15:15, 16 April 2021 (UTC)

I would not equate soil with dirt.
Quote: "Soil is also commonly referred to as earth or dirt". I agree regarding earth, but not dirt. Soil can be also clean or dirty. 85.193.252.19 (talk) 00:30, 3 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Dirt is an Americanism. Earth possibly more of a Britishism, possibly more widespread.  Lithopsian (talk) 14:57, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah, indeed. Thank you :) 85.193.252.19 (talk) 20:37, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

Soil vs ground vs earth vs dirt
The article already explains the difference between soil and dirt. What about ground and earth? The Russian language has a term that sounds similar to ground and means any earth material, whether it has organic matter or not, whether it is made of particles (like soil or sand) or solid (bedrock). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nemohuman (talk • contribs) 00:52, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Interesting. I don't know about Russian language equivalent, but in the English language, the meaning of ground (n.) resonates with the verb form, ground (verb spelled exactly the same). Earth doesn't have a verb equivalent, but it gets a lot of use as an adjective. Earth material, earthy smell, earthy look, earthy feel. You can give ground but with earth, its earth (as the soil+bedrock resource) that does the giving. I expect the use of earthy terms differs subtly by language. Interesting. Paleorthid (talk) 01:26, 4 March 2022 (UTC)