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TerraLens

Realm

Soils & Rocks

The skin of the land

Rock cycle, soil profile, texture triangle, weathering, and erosion. The skin of the land, in 3D.

A field pit through horizons.
A field pit through horizons. This is the classroom sense of soils: a named landform, process, or object. Source: Wikimedia Commons / NASA / USGS / NOAA, public domain or CC.Wikimedia Commons / NASA / USGS / NOAA, public domain or CC
An igneous texture you can name.
Soils & Rocks

Rock cycle

Igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic. Arrows, not a one-way ladder. Temperature and pressure bias the path.

KS3GCSENGSS MS
A soil pit with readable horizons.
Soils & Rocks

Soil profile

O A E B C R — a stack, not dirt. Compare brown earth, mollisol, oxisol.

GCSEA-levelNGSS MS
Mineral soil in the hand — texture, not colour class.
Soils & Rocks

Soil texture triangle

Sand, silt, clay. Plot a sample. Name the class. Loam is a place on the triangle, not a brand.

GCSEA-levelAPES
Spheroidal weathering of granite.
Soils & Rocks

Weathering

Mechanical, chemical, biological — three blocks, side by side, not a ranking of virtue.

KS3GCSENGSS MS
A gully cut into a soil slope.
Soils & Rocks

Soil erosion

Rain splash, rill, wind. Vegetation on, the A horizon stays. Vegetation off, it leaves.

KS3GCSENGSS MS
A slope sequence of soils.
Soils & Rocks

Soil catena

One Yorkshire hillside, four soils. Crest is thin and dry. Toe is thick and wet. The hill is the factory.

GCSEA-levelAPES