The Mystery of Soil and Oil, Part 2

1. As you explore water absorption and percolation rates in different kinds of soil, what are your thoughts about how water could move oil pollution through sand, clay, humus or a mixture of these soil types?

2. Which type of soil (sand, clay or humus) absorbs or holds the most water? How might this affect the amount of oil that could reach ground water?

3. Look at your soil sample observation table and explain how the properties might determine how much water is held by each soil type.

Please share your thinking with us. Put your first name & initial at the top of your comment!

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49 Responses to The Mystery of Soil and Oil, Part 2

  1. Q.Hicks says:

    avery and sebastian i agree with you guys because if and oil spill occured you can always put clay to block you and the clay will always absorb it and a FYI isaiah are you disagreeing to this or NOOOOTTT!!!!!!

  2. Q.Hicks says:

    i think that the sand will have better water absorption because when you poor water it starts to get clumpy and like…. for example if you go to the becah and put sea water in sand water doesnt go straight through it it goes in it.

  3. Q.Hicks says:

    marc-anthony i really dont understand what your stating can you repeat it;)

  4. Q.Hicks says:

    Arin i agree with you i like the way that you used facts and scintific words way 2 go :)

  5. Isaiah says:

    I think that the properties might determine their properties by texture clumpiness and the materials i nthe soil might determine how much water will be hold because if it is clumpy, those pieces will absorb the water

  6. myles says:

    Butiful answer zamir nice way of useing scientific words!_!

  7. Natalie P says:

    3) I think the amount of particle size might determined how much water the soils might hold because if there is a lot of big pieces there is a lot of pours. If there is a lot of pours then the soils have a hig permeability which means the water will go through the soils quickly.

  8. myles says:

    1. I think that based on the project the water moves through based on the pouressness or airy spaces of the soil. Like I noticed that when the water was trying to pass through the clay it woul no beccause the clay was thick and it was hardening. that is why it had the lowest perculation rate.
    2. The soil that held the most water was clay, because it had no airy spaces, and because of that it had the lowest perculation rate.
    3. You can tell about the perculation rate because the one that has the highest absorbancy is the one that has the lowest perculation rate which is clay. And the one that has the lowes absorbancy has the highest perculation rate which was dirt.

  9. Daniy'sha Gregory says:

    Humus- Is asorbant because if you were to add water it would go right though.
    Clay-When you have you had clay and you were to pillote it the clay would get hard and from the things that were being put or added to the clay.

  10. Sebastien C. says:

    3. When looking at my observation table, I think that humus was able to let water go through it the most, then sand, and then clay. The reason why I think that clay would be last is because clay has no porous areas, which lets no water go through it.

    Sebastien

  11. Sebastien C. says:

    2. The soil type that I know is most absorbent to water, is clay. So if oil had spilled, I would want it to spill on a ground made up of clay! If the oil did spill on a clay surface, than I do not think that any ground water would be affected, because the clay can hold up all of the oil.

    Sebastien

  12. Isaiah says:

    i disagree with you avery

  13. Isaiah says:

    2. maybe when the oil catches on with the water it might run with itand the water, traveling with the oil with soak into the sand
    3.

  14. Avery N says:

    hi sebastien I agree with your post a lot I think that i would chose clay to if an oil spill occured

  15. savannah says:

    if a oil truck got into a car acident and oil leaked i would go near clay because its most obsorbent which means oil would not be able to reach the ground all the oil would just stay on top. in my group experiment clay was the most obsorbent with water, so if oiled spilled on clay it would not allow the water to go through to the ground. because clay has a low permibility.

  16. Isaiah says:

    I think that clay will hold the most water because when it gets wet it closes up and keeps all the water soaked in

  17. maya says:

    1)If a oil spill happened i would want to be near clay happened i would want to be near clay why? Because clay is not pours and its t he most absorbent which would mean that the oil would stay on top.

  18. Mrs. Andrews says:

    Xavier G’s post:

    I think that if a oil truck spilled oil clay would be the most absorbant.Clay it not very porus so its hard for any liqud to travel, so therefore clay is the most absorbant.

  19. hyojune says:

    1:If a oil spill happened in the world, I would first want to be near clay. I would be near clay because clay is not porurs, and it’s the most absorbent which would mean that the oil would stay on top. My second choice, where I would be is probably sand. I would be near sand secondly because some of the oil stays on top which means it’s porurs and has some absorbtion. However, some of the oil pollution would sink in the sand and go into the layers of the earth.

  20. Zamir says:

    1 If there was a oil spill, i would hope that the soil is clay. I would choose clay because it is not porus, which means that no liquid can get through, It also mean it has a high absorbancy so no oil would get through. If not clay then sand would be the best soil for a spill because it holds more liquid than humus.

    2 I think the clay soil type will hold the most water, because it is not porus so no liguid will get through.If the soil was clay the oil would not affect the ground water because the clay isn’t porus so no oil will touch the ground water.So the ground water will not be affected

    3 well the humous was porus so the water because there was open spaces in the humous for the water to run out. like the stick and twings and rocks that left open space so iseen the water run out.

  21. Arin says:

    3.properties might affect how water is held by, the particle size, the bigger the particle size the more porus the soil is, and the more porus it is, the more permeable the soil is too. Another property might be, the clumpiness. If a soil is clumpy, it clumps together making water impossible to get through.

  22. Aralig Alv. says:

    If an oil truck flipped over on the highway and oil was spilling on the ground I would hope that clay was the soil surrounding the accident. I would want clay to be the soil type because it is has the lowest perculation rate. so it will absorbe the oil and not let it pass threw. The second best type of soil that could be around the accident is sand. Sand is kind of permeable and has a slow percolation rate, so sand will absorbe a little oil and let some through. The worst type of soil that could be around the accident would be hummus. Hummus is the worst because it is very permeable and has a high peorculation rate. So it would let all of the oil to go through and pollute the ground water.

  23. Godwin A says:

    Question 1- If an oil truck spilled on the highway I would hope that clay would surround the area. I hope this because clay is the least permeable of humus and sand.
    If there were not, I would settle for a mix of clay, sand, and humus. I would settle for this because there would be clay inside of the mix, and clay is the most absorbent of all.
    Question 2- The most absorbent soil is clay. This can affect the amount of oil that reaches ground water because, clay would absorb the oil and then repel all of the remaining oil the clay did not absorb.
    Question 3- Properties may affect the absorbency for instance, when something is very granular it has large pieces and is the most porous. Humus is just like this and humus allowed (an average of 2 results) an average of 48 ml of 50 ml through! Many properties do matter, but some like color are not a factor is how porous something is, the absorbency, and the percolation rate.

    • Nate U * says:

      Overall, you did a great job. However, if clay was not available, how could you use it in a mix? If only a mix was available, I would mix clay and sand, not all three soils. Why would you mix humus with sand and clay if you had the option of just mixing sand and clay alone? If you also mixed humus, more porous spots would appear.
      ~Nate U*

    • Avery N says:

      Wow godwin this is a very developed response, keep up the good work

    • Marc Anthony C. says:

      I so agree because rember when we did the dig in.

  24. Marc Anthony C. says:

    Quesion 1- I think think that it is humus is the anser because humus will let the water go throue. Humus has a high permabilay. [ A lickwid like water can go throu fast].

  25. Nate U * says:

    1. I believe that water can move oil pollution through various soils at different rates. While studying percolation rates in science, our class discovered that clay had a very low percolation rate. Therefore, clay will most likely absorb the most oil. This means that if an oil spill occurred, I would want it to spill on clay, then sand, and finally humus.
    2. The soil that absorbs the most water is clay. This means that if someone poured oil on clay, the oil would not seep into fresh groundwater. Therefore, clay is the best soil to prevent oil damage.
    3. Properties such as texture and clumpiness affect how much water a soil holds because clumpier soil smooths, and creates a barricade from the liquid. Soils with a rough texture are most likely porous because of many tiny soil particles. Therfore, rougher soils allow more water to drip into groundwater.

  26. Natalie P says:

    1) If an oil truck spilled on the highway I would hope clay would be on the ground because clay is very absorbent and would not let the oil go to the ground. This makes sense because clay has a low permiability–it has a very smooth texture and is not very porous so water cannot go through. My second choice would be Sand because sand has a low permeability because it is grainy but the grains in sand are small thus sand has small pours, and therefore sand allows water to go through. It would take a while for the oil to go through sand because the pours are so tiny, but the oil would still go through. My third choice would be humus because humus has a high permeabiliy. so the oil would go right through the soil. Humus is a grainy soil so there is a lot of pours and airy spaces thus, the perculation rate is very high.

  27. Arin says:

    2.Clay, out of sand, clay, and humus, will be the most absorbant, and will reduce the amount of oil that reaches ground water because, from my past expiriments, clay was the most absorbant and held more water than either sand, or humus. I think that clay will reduce the amount of soil that reaches ground water because, the clay is very absorbant, and will absorb most of the oil that is leaking through.

  28. Marc Anthony C. says:

    Quesion 1- I think think that it is humus is the anser because humus will let the go throue.

  29. Avery N says:

    1) I belive that if a oil truck spilled oil all over I woulld want clay to be near by the spill. My second choice would be sand, and my third choice would be hummus. clay is the most absorbent out of the other two soils.
    2) Clay is the most absorbent. The particles of clay are tiny so there are very little pours or airy spaces.
    3)soils with very airy spaces do not hold a lot of water, therefore the soil is not that absorbent.

  30. Arin says:

    1.My thoughts about how water could move oil polloution through sand, clay, and humus, are that clay would be the best soil type to absorb oil leaking through the ground, and would do the best job of preventing the oil from leaking into the ground water. I think that clay will be the best soil type to absorb oil, because during my past expiriments, clay was the most absorbant out of all the soil types. The clay absorbed the most water when I was doing my expiriments, and will most likley do the same with the oil.

  31. savannah says:

    if poulution went through clay it would not go through because water obsortion would make the clay really hard. I think sense sand has grains it would be more pouros so it would be permible.

  32. Sebastien C. says:

    1. If there was a truck that spilled oil, I think that clay would be the most absorbent. I think this because clay is not very porous, which leads this to be very absorbent.

  33. Natalie P says:

    2) Clay is the most absorbent soil. This soil can affect the amount of oil that reaches ground water because clay is not permeable so the clay would hold the oil and pervent the oil from reaching the ground water.