As discussed in the preceding section, the sizes of particles that make up soil vary over a
wide range. Soils generally are called gravel, sand, silt, or clay, depending on the predominant
size of particles within the soil. To describe soils by their particle size, several
organizations have developed particle-size classifications. Table 2.3 shows the particle-size
classifications developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation. In this table, the MIT system is presented for illustration purposes only. This
system is important in the history of the development of the size limits of particles present
in soils; however, the Unified Soil Classification System is now almost universally
accepted and has been adopted by the American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM). Figure 2.7 shows the size limits in a graphic form.
Gravels are pieces of rocks with occasional particles of quartz, feldspar, and other
minerals. Sand particles are made of mostly quartz and feldspar. Other mineral grains also may be present at times. Figure 2.8 shows the scanning electron micrograph of some sand
grains. Note that the larger grains show rounding that can occur as a result of wear during
intermittent transportation by wind and/or water. Figure 2.9 is a higher magnification of
the grains highlighted in Figure 2.8, and it reveals a few small clay particles adhering to
larger sand grains. Silts are the microscopic soil fractions that consist of very fine quartz grains and some flake-shaped particles that are fragments of micaceous minerals. Clays are
mostly flake-shaped microscopic and submicroscopic particles of mica, clay minerals, and
other minerals.
As shown in Table 2.3 and Figure 2.7, clays generally are defined as particles smaller
than 0.002 mm. However, in some cases, particles between 0.002 and 0.005 mm in size
also are referred to as clay. Particles classified as clay on the basis of their size may not
necessarily contain clay minerals. Clays have been defined as those particles “which
develop plasticity when mixed with a limited amount of water” (Grim, 1953). (Plasticity
is the putty-like property of clays that contain a certain amount of water.) Nonclay soils
can contain particles of quartz, feldspar, or mica that are small enough to be within the clay
classification. Hence, it is appropriate for soil particles smaller than 2 microns (2 mm), or
5 microns (5 mm) as defined under different systems, to be called clay-sized particles
rather than clay. Clay particles are mostly in the colloidal size range ( 1 mm), and 2 mm
appears to be the upper limit.