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A Thermogravimetric Approach to the Classification of Organic Soils
Author(s) -
Schnitzer M.,
Hoffman I.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1966.03615995003000010024x
Subject(s) - thermogravimetric analysis , humus , soil water , soil science , mineralogy , solubility , pyrophosphate , water content , chemistry , geology , environmental chemistry , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , enzyme
The thermogravimetric method is shown to offer a simple but valid and meaningful method for assessing the degree of humification of organic soils. Heights of the 280C maxima in the differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves of 22 organic soil samples, ranging from peats, mucky peats, peaty mucks to mucks, were inversely proportional to the degree of humification as determined by pyrophosphate solubility. Highly significant negative correlations were found between peak height at 280C and (i) solubility in 0.025 m sodium pyrophosphate solution, (ii) percent ash, and (iii) percent moisture. The analytical data were fitted by the method of least squares to polynomials of various degrees on an IBM 1620 computer. The thermogravimetric technique offers a new approach to the classification of organic soils and should also find wide application in humification studies.