After an unexpected hiatus, hosts Jane and Ellen return with a down and dirty episode about soil. Jane reveals her childhood experiences with a DIY mud spa before digging into the agricultural and geological definitions for soil. They discuss the four main components of soil: inorganics, organics, water, and air or gas. They talk about how to identify soil texture and soil structure. They also discuss soil profile and soil horizons (which are similar to cake layers, but less delicious). They review the processes and factors that form soil. And finally, they explain the 12 basic soil orders used for soil taxonomy by USDA scientists. Note: this dirty, filthy episode is approved for audiences.

Our main source for this episode is: The Nature and Properties of Soils (14th ed.), Nyle C. Brady, and Ray R. Weil

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

Hosts Jane and Ellen finish each other’s… sandwiches in this “Frozen” episode about glaciers. Glaciers are a body of moving ice that has been formed on land by the compaction and recrystallization of snow. They take forms like valley, ice sheet, or outlet, because, really, who’s going to tell them not to. Learn why glaciers are more likely to form at the equator than at 30 degrees latitude north and south, and find out how glacial budget has its pluses and minuses. Let it go and enjoy this frosty episode.

Our main source for this episode is Process geomorphology (5th ed.), Ritter, Kochel, & Miller.

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.

We’re devoting this episode to the season’s most dreaded stocking stuffer, coal. Travel back in time to the Paleozoic era, where coal starts as rotten plants. Add heat, pressure, and time, and quick as a wink from old Saint Nick - you’ve got coal! And like Santa’s naughty or nice list, learn how coal is graded into four types: lignite, sub bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite. Return to the present, where coal provides 38.5% of the world’s electrical power, and glimpse at the future of alternative fuels. BYO hot chocolate. 

Sources:
How is Steel Produced? by the World Coal Association: https://www.worldcoal.org/coal/uses-coal/how-steel-produced

Annual Energy Review by the US Energy Information Administration: https://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/ 

How Much Do You Consume? by the US Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/articles/how-much-do-you-consume  

Music for It’s Sedimentary, My Dear is provided by Solar Sleighs.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also contact us through our website sedimentarymydear.com.