At the beginning of this week I helped some faculty in the NCSU Dept. of Soil Science with the North Carolina Geomorphology Tour. The tour is a one-week field class that starts at the outer banks of North Carolina and ends in the mountains at the Tennessee boarder. Along the way the students examine andContinue reading “North Carolina Soil Geomorphology Tour”
Tag Archives: soil
Earth Day 2012 – Activity Ideas & I Heart Soil Campaign
Happy Earth Day everyone. Earth Day is a holiday celebrated by people of all walks of life in a variety of ways. In the past I’ve celebrated it by doing trash clean-ups, educating the public about water quality using an ISU SWCC groundwater flow model, and more. I’m not planning any environment-related activity for todayContinue reading “Earth Day 2012 – Activity Ideas & I Heart Soil Campaign”
The Soil Orders – Gelisols
This is the first of a series of blog posts where I will describe some of the interesting features of each of the 12 soil orders in Soil Taxonomy – the soil classification system developed for the US by the United States Department of Agriculture. Each order will be “profiled” (forgive the bad soils pun)Continue reading “The Soil Orders – Gelisols”
The Art of Soil Color
Soils from around the world differ greatly. One reason for that is color, as evidenced in the header of this website. Colors were first standardized by Professor Albert H. Munsell on a system with three components: hue, value, and chroma. It was standardized primarily for industry. As an example, the orange thread used in theContinue reading “The Art of Soil Color”
SoilWeb – A Soil Survey App
SoilWeb is a smart phone app developed by the California Soil Resource Lab for Android and iPhone devices. In a nutshell, it reads your GPS location and brings up a description of the soil series (or soil mapping unit) on which your standing. The first screen shows what a soil pedon (3-dimensional view of aContinue reading “SoilWeb – A Soil Survey App”
Envirothon
As a graduate student in the NC State Department of Soil Science, and a member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society at NCSU I have had the pleasure of interacting with local Envirothon teams each spring. In a nutshell, Envirothon is a series of academic competitions at the local, state, and international level that focusContinue reading “Envirothon”
Erosion
There are many topics in soil science, and soil and water conservation that are worth a thorough discussion. One is soil erosion. Erosion is a vast topic so it will not all be addressed in one post, or even one blog for that matter. However, this blog post is the first of many in aContinue reading “Erosion”
“Soil” vs. “Dirt”
As a soil scientist I often hear non-soil scientists refer to soil as “dirt”, or people even ask me if there’s a difference. In my mind there is. The simple difference is this: “dirt is soil where it’s not supposed to be”. For example, if your dog goes outside and plays in your backyard, he’llContinue reading ““Soil” vs. “Dirt””
Hello world!
This is the first of many blog posts for my new website. First, let me introduce myself. Who is Colby: My name is Colby Moorberg. I am a doctoral student in the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina State University. I grew up on a small hog farm in Iowa. After a short mishapContinue reading “Hello world!”
Colby Digs Soil 