Parent Material

In soil science, parent material is the underlying geological material (generally bedrock or a superficial or drift deposit) in which soil horizons form. Soils typically inherit a great deal of structure and minerals from their parent material, and, as such, are often classified based upon their contents of consolidated or unconsolidated mineral material that has undergone some degree of physical or chemical weathering and the mode by which the materials were most recently transported.

Read more about Parent Material:  Consolidated, Unconsolidated, Climate and Weathering

Famous quotes containing the words parent and/or material:

    This part of being a man, changing the way we parent, happens only when we want it to. It changes because we are determined for it to change; and the motive for changing often comes out of wanting to be the kind of parent we didn’t have.
    Augustus Y. Napier (20th century)

    This country is at present engaged in furnishing material for future authors; not in encouraging its living ones.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)