Soil Unit Test
5 questions using your Soil Triangle. You will need it on the day of the test.
Matching:
Soil horizon – a distinct layer of soil
Parent Material – the base geological material in a particular location
Weathering – the physical and chemical processes that break down rocks and
minerals into smaller particles
Soil – The mixture of disintegrated rock, organic matter, water, gases, nutrients,
and microorganisms that supports plant growth.
Bedrock – the mass of solid rock that makes up the Earth’s crust
Matching:
Clay – particles that are less than 0.002 mm in diameter
Sand – soil particles that are 0.05 to 2 mm in diameter
Soil Profile – A cross-section of all the soil horizons in a specific soil, from surface
to bedrock, in a specific area
Silt – Soil particles between 0.002 to 0.05 mm in diameter
Loam – Soil that is approximately equal parts clay, silt, and sand
Matching:
Intercropping – A soil conservation method in which two or more crops are
planted in one field
Shelterbelt – Rows of trees or other tall, perennial plants planted along the edge
of a field to prevent wind erosion. Also called a windbreak.
Crop rotation – A soil conservation method in which the type of crop grown in a
field is alternated from one season or year to the next
Soil degradation – The deterioration of those characteristics of soil needed for
plant growth or other ecosystem services.
Cover crop – A fast-growing crop that is planted in the interval between harvest
and the next season’s planting to prevent erosion and limit the loss of nitrogen
Matching:
Terracing – sloped land is transformed into a series of steps to prevent soil
erosion
Tilling – turning over the soil before planting
Desertification – a loss of more than 10% of productivity of soil due to erosion,
deforestation, overgrazing, drought, or other factors
Contour farming – furrows are plowed across a hillside, perpendicular to the slope
Overgrazing – animals eat so much of the plant cover that plants cannot regrow
Matching:
Irrigation – Using a source other than precipitation to water crops
Pesticide – a chemical used to kill organisms that attack or compete with plants
Salinization – the buildup of salts in the surface layers of soil
Multiple choice:
38% of the earth’s land surface is used for agriculture.
Organic matter in soil includes living and decomposing organisms.
Crop rotation does not let fields lie fallow.
Arid and semiarid lands are prone to desertification because they do not get
enough precipitation.
True/False:
It takes 100 years to form an inch of soil
Terracing is labor-intensive but the only sustainable way to farm mountains.
Far and Away and The Cherokee Strip: Multiple Choice
The land run in this area was 1893.
The best known cattle trail in the Cherokee strip was the Chisholm Trail.
People who went to the land, before the race, and claimed the land illegally were
called Sooners.
The area of the Cherokee strip eventually became the state of Oklahoma.
Anyone who “jumped the gun” was shot.
Over 100 years after the race, agriculture remains the strength of the economy
and way of life.
The first commercial oil well opened in 1897.
In the area of the dust bowl, agriculture began about 1,200 A.D.
It is thought that the droughts in the dust bowl area are partially caused by the
activity of the sun.
During the new deal, .20 to .40 was paid to farmers, per acre, to use the chisel
plow.
3.5 million people abandoned their farms during the dust bowl.
Soil is wealth.
A tractor could plow 50 acres/day.
Match:
Kansas had black dust, New Mexico and Colorado had gray dust, Oklahoma had
red dust.
Dust pneumonia is a disease caused by dust.
Dust pneumonia caused 1/3 of the deaths in Ford county Kansas in 1935.
Most people who left the dust bowl went to California
Last Man’s Club is the organization in which people pledged to stay in the dust
bowl
Crows made a nest entirely of barbed wire.
Tex Thornton said explosions would bring rain.
Hugh Bennett was the father of soil conservation.
Black Sunday was April 14, 1935.