Author(s):

Rajeshwar Malavath and S Mani

Abstract: The study was carried out in the three new research stations of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University with varied soil types viz., red soils, red laterite soils and black soils to study the variation in elemental composition of soils. The silica content in red soil pedons was varied from 55.73 to 64.08 per cent in surface horizons, whereas in subsurface horizons it was ranged from 50.99 to 56.20 per cent where as in black soils, silica content was varied from 62.6 to 66.6 per cent in surface and 60.1 to 65.6 in subsurface horizons. The silica content varied from 53.3 per cent to 58.0 per cent in surface horizons whereas in subsurface horizons ranged from 49.6 per cent to 59.2 percent in red laterite soil pedons. The chemical composition of soils exhibited the siliceous nature with broad and large silica/sesquioxides and silica/alumina ratios. The wider ratios of SiO₂/R₂O₃ and SiO₂/Al₂O₃ was found in the black soils followed by red soils where montmorillonite and illite as dominant clay minerals and narrow ratio was found in red laterite soils where Kaolinite was dominant clay mineral.

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