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STUDIES OF SOME CRACKING CLAY SOILS IN THE LAKE CHAD BASIN OF NORTH EAST NIGERIA
Author(s) -
BEAVINGTON F.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 0022-4588
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1978.tb00806.x
Subject(s) - vertisol , soil water , clay minerals , montmorillonite , geology , structural basin , clay soil , irrigation , geochemistry , soil science , chemistry , agronomy , geomorphology , organic chemistry , biology
Summary The pedological characteristics, and physical, chemical and mineralogical properties are investigated for soils developed in a 1 m to 1.5 m layer of lacustrine clay material deposited on a former sand plain in the Lake Chad basin in north east Nigeria. (These soils are being developed for intensive production of rice, wheat and other crops under irrigation.) The surface layer of these soils has about 60 per cent clay, a pH of about 7.9, and a coarse, strong prismatic structure. The sub‐soil is often notably higher in clay content, pH and exch. Na. The smectite content of the clay fraction (surface soil) is 35 to 45 per cent and the CEC 350 meq kg ‐1 . The levels of montmorillonite and CEC, and the size of the cracks in dry soil, although the latter are appreciable, are all notably less than the values reported for the clay soils of the Sudan Gezira. The Lake Chad basin clay soils are not considered to be vertisols according to the FAO Soil Map of the World, on grounds of profile morphology, though it seems the French pedologists would regard them as paravertisols.