Soil Texture
Definition
The relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay in the mineral fraction of a soil, expressed as a USDA or ISSS texture class.
- Components
- Relative proportions of sand, silt and clay in the mineral fraction
- Classification
- Expressed as a USDA or ISSS texture class
- Determination
- Assessed by particle-size analysis or field hand-texturing
- Use
- Compared between crime scene and suspect soil samples
Common questions
How does soil texture differ from soil colour analysis?+
Texture describes the physical particle-size makeup of the mineral fraction, while colour (typically read with a Munsell chart) describes the visual appearance produced by mineralogy, organic content and moisture; the two are independent properties and both are recorded together in a forensic soil comparison.
Can soil texture alone individualise a sample to one location?+
No, texture class is a coarse discriminator shared by many sites with similar geology, so it is used alongside colour, mineral content, pH and other properties to build a combined comparison profile rather than as a standalone identifier.
Related terms
- A Horizon
- The uppermost mineral soil horizon, darkened by organic matter accumulation and the layer most commonly transferred by footwear and vehicle contact.
- Chroma
- The saturation or colourfulness of the hue, from 0 (neutral grey) outward in whole-number steps. Strongly weathered, iron-oxide-rich soils have high chroma;...
- Clay Mineral
- A secondary phyllosilicate mineral produced by chemical weathering; includes kaolinite, illite, smectite, and chlorite, all diagnostic of parent material and weathering intensity.
- Hue
- The dominant wavelength family of a colour, expressed as a position on the Munsell colour wheel. Soil hues run from 10R (red)...
- Loss on Ignition (LOI)
- Weight loss after heating dried soil to 550 degrees Celsius. Approximates the organic matter content. A simple, cheap, high-yield discriminator in field...
- Munsell Chip Comparison
- The visual procedure of matching a soil sample against printed colour chips in the Munsell Soil Colour Chart under standard daylight conditions,...
- Munsell Notation
- A three-component colour code (Hue-Value/Chroma) standardised under ASTM D1535 for describing soil colour from the Munsell Soil Colour Chart.
- Particle-Size Distribution
- The quantitative measurement of the proportions of gravel, sand, silt, and clay in a soil sample, determined by sieving and hydrometer or...
- USDA Soil Taxonomy
- A hierarchical classification of soils into 12 orders based on pedogenic processes and measurable diagnostic properties; the primary reference for US forensic...
- Value
- The lightness dimension of the Munsell system, scaled from 0 (theoretical black) to 10 (theoretical white). High-organic soils tend to have low...
- World Reference Base (WRB)
- The FAO-IUSS international soil classification standard, with 32 Reference Soil Groups; mandatory vocabulary for ENFSI forensic soil evidence reports.