do the great plains have fertile soil?
89166
if they didnt, they would be called the "not so great plains"
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wow.. tdhat is a BIG subject and I have studied soil conservation for many years and to put that answer down into a few words is DIFFICULT... just as difficult as conserving soil.\n\nCaring for our soil resources is becoming increasingly critical as the supply of dependable agricultural land decreases from competition by other uses, such as urban development. Healthy soils are key to producing good harvests of crops, and minimizes expenses such as fertilizer and pest control. If we let agricultural soils become degraded, there will be no new soil to take its place\n\nHere are just a few things to be considered:\n\nMinimize or eliminate summer fallow \nSeed directly into the previous year's stubble without pre-seeding tillage. No-till increases soil organic matter, enhances water infiltration, conserves moisture and reduces runoff and soil erosion due to wind, water and tillage. \nReduce tillage: replace one or more tillage operations with herbicide application to control weeds. Reduced tillage over successive years improves the physical and chemical properties of the soil, and at the same time helps restore organic matter – plant roots, microorganisms, insects and earthworms – which, when left undisturbed, work to stimulate and sustain plant growth. \nExtend crop rotations, particularly with the inclusion of legumes. The benefits include improved fertility, tilth, aggregate stability, moisture storage, and resistance to soil erosion and degradation, as well as reductions in insect, weed and disease problems. All of these factors contribute to increased productivity. \nAdopt permanent conservation practices such as grassed waterways, perennial grass barriers, and strip cropping. \nManage manure not as a waste, but as an important source of organic matter and plant nutrients. Organic matter, and the organisms that eat it, can improve water holding capacity, nutrient availability, and can help protect against erosion. However, applying manure in the fall or over-application can lead to water and air pollution. \nManage irrigation effectively, by reducing water losses from spray drift and over-application. \nCarefully manage fertilizer by applying according to the crops needs, during the time that the crop needs it and close to the root system so it can be utilized efficiently. Although fertilizer can increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, mis-management can also pollute air and water. \nManage pesticides carefully, by following label instructions. Try to minimize pesticide use by using an integrated approach, which incorporates other pest control practices such as a varied crop rotation and biological control options. \nMaintain healthy grass cover on pastures to prevent soil erosion, by using practices such as rotational grazing and rest periods. \nKeep crop residues on soil surface as much as possible. Crop residues include roots, chaff, stems and leaves which are left after a crop is harvested. These residues improve several soil properties, such as organic matter replenishment, water infiltration, water storage and particle aggregation. Crop residues also contain nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and micronutrients. \nSeed forages to increase soil organic matter, reduce erosion and salinity, and recover nutrients that leached below the rooting depth of annual crops. Selection of forage species and management practices can be tailored to specific problems such as drought, excessive soil moisture, salinity, poor soil structure, low pH and other problems. \nProvide adequate wind barriers, such as shelterbelts, to reduce wind erosion. Shelterbelts have the added benefit of increasing crop yields by trapping more snow, particularly of less drought-tolerant crops such as canola and alfalfa. \nPlant cover crops late in summer to protect soil against late fall and early spring erosion. Cover crops store nutrients for the crops that follow them, keep weeds down, host beneficial insects a
131524
Wheat is not leguminous. It is incpable of fixing nitrogen.
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The ground of course.  They have come up through the soil to your compost.
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Which minerals are you interested in? You need to be far more specific in framing your question.\n\nAccording to the link, the state of Nebraska has the fewest mineral deposits/producers associated with it.
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Soil is either topsoil or subsoil - both are horizontal.\n\nTopsoil is the 'living' soil that contains bacteria, nutrients etc and which enables plants to grow.  Usually about 600mm deep.\n\nSubsoil is the 'dead' soil that is deprived of nutrients etc.
430070
soil erosion is most common..soil looses its fertility making it useless for agricultural purposes
929119
This is quite an open question.  Grasslands are their own unique ecosystem with a diversity of successional stages, flora and fauna.  The most interesting thing I can think of regarding grasslands is their lack of trees (such as in the great plains region).  Many people think that it is due to a lack of water that trees are largely absent from the prairie, however, the ecological explanation for this is fire.  Fire is essential for the removal of woody plants from the prairie and the promotion of new, healthy native plants.  \n    Native grassland plants (such as indian grass and bluestems) have special adaptations to this environment and posess growth regoins called meristems that are located just below the soil surface.  This allows them to survive prairie fires and regrow quickly, preserving a unique habitat for animal species that live there.  \n    Lightning is a natural firestarter but native americans also started fires on purpose.  As grass regrew following a burn, grazing animals like bison were attracted to that area and could be hunted.  Nowadays, humans have plowed most native grasslands, set cattle to graze, and prevent fire from occuring which has a but destroyed the natural prairie habitat that was once abundant in the plains.  Wildlife managers use prescribed burns to manage grassland habitats in parks and reserves.
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The helium from most of the alpha particles, however, has been trapped deep within the earth, not far from the top of the mantle. Helium diffuses very rapidly, so it can be expected to have been mobile in the crust. The Great Plains of the United States consist of a thin crust of sedimentary rock on a basement of igneous rock that would be a source of radiogenic helium. The helium has collected where other gases have collected, depending on the chances of distribution. In some of these gases, helium is present up to about 8% by volume, a surprising amount. However, in most gases the abundance is less than 1%, sometimes much less, and the occurrence is very rare on a world-wide basis. Some natural gas or well helium, as radiogenic helium from the earth is also called, is found in the Canadian west, and, in lesser quantities, in gas associated with the blue rock salt of Germany, and a few other locations. There may also be helium in Siberia, where the geologic conditions resemble those of the Great Plains.\n\nPorous and permeable rocks deep below the surface are often saturated with salt water, at a pressure of the same order as the hydrostatic pressure at that depth, called the formation pressure. Since 33 ft of water corresponds to 1 atm, or 14.7 psi, the formation pressure at 3300 ft would already be 1470 psi. Gases in permeable rocks collect at the highest points they can reach, and there form a "cap" of gas, possibly underlaid with liquid petroleum. A well drilled into the part of the formation containing liquid petroleum would soon fill with the liquid and flow out of the hole, as quickly as it could ooze into the hole. The weight of the petroleum would largely balance the formation pressure, so the oil would generally flow placidly. In rare cases, the formation pressure might be high enough to project a jet into the air, a "gusher." As formation pressure is lost, as it always is when holes are drilled, the oil might not reach the surface, and then it would have to be pumped out mechanically. Oil cannot be sucked from rocks; you can only collect what shows up.\n\nWith gas, what happens is quite different. The gas is so light that it cannot balance the formation pressure, and the gas exits from the hole at high pressure, unless confined (perhaps by the fluids used in drilling the well). Such a well was called a "blower" in early days, and the owners hardly realized that what was blowing out was, in effect, their wealth, since with depleted formation pressure little oil or gas could be produced. A gas well is exhausted when the pressure is no longer sufficient to bring the gas to the surface at sufficient pressure. These days, much gas in the western United States is produced from shallow coal-bed wells or from formations of small permeability, or "tight" formations. This gas has to be compressed before it can be put into the gas pipeline.\n\nNatural gas is often thought of as methane, CH4, and most marketable natural gas is chiefly methane. However, the gas ranges from a rich gas containing considerable ethylene and even heavier components, which give it a high heating value, down to lean gases containg so much nitrogen that it will not even burn if ignited. The bacteria that produced the oil also leave behind carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, which are often found in the gas. Hydrogen sulphide makes the gas poisonous and of foul odor; such gas is called "sour." The hydrogen sulphide is relatively easily removed, and the sulphur that results is a valuable by-product. Some gas is almost pure carbon dioxide, and many wells are produced for the carbon dioxide, a valuable chemical. Indeed, carbon dioxide is often pumped underground to repressurize a formation, and serve as a lubricant for getting the oil out. Sweet natural gas has little odor and is not poisonous.\n\nSome of this natural gas also contains helium. Gas rich in helium usually also has considerable nitrogen, but
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the proportion for the best soil medium to plant in is 30% OM (organic matter), that is, 30% humus! this is actually the proportion for loam soils where plants grows best!!!  =)
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Soil is the collection of natural bodies that form in earthy material on the land surface. The term is popularly applied to the material on the surface of the earth's moon and Mars, a usage acceptable within a portion of the scientific community.\n\nSoil consists of mineral and organic matter, as well as living organisms. Soil, comprising the pedosphere, is positioned at the interface of the lithosphere with the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. Pedogenesis produces soil from geologic materials such as granite, limestone, glacial drift, loess and alluvium through a combination of climatic and biogeochemical processes.\n\nSoil is among our most important natural resources because of its position in the landscape and its dynamic, physical, chemical, and biologic functions. Indeed, engineers, agronomists, chemists, geologists, geographers, biologists, microbiologists, sylviculturists, sanitarians, archaeologists, and specialists in regional planning, all depend on, and contribute to, knowledge of soils. While the general concept of soil is well established, the definition of soil varies, according to the perspective of the discipline or occupation using soil as a resource.\n\nThe understanding of soil is incomplete. Despite the duration of mankind's dependence on and curiosity about soil, exploring the diversity and dynamic of this resource continues to yield fresh discoveries and insights. New avenues of soil research are compelled by our need to understand soil in the context of climate change , greenhouse gases , and carbon sequestration.  Our interest in maintaining the planet's biodiversity and in exploring past cultures has also stimulated renewed interest in achieving a more refined understanding of soil.\n\nclick here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil#Soil_classification\n\n\nif you mean Earth,click here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
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The Fertile Crescent is a historical region in the Middle East incorporating Ancient Egypt, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The term "Fertile Crescent" was coined by University of Chicago archaeologist James Henry Breasted.\n\nWatered by the Nile, Jordan, Euphrates and Tigris rivers and covering some 400-500,000 square kilometers, the region extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea around the north of the Syrian Desert and through the Jazirah and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. These areas correspond to the present-day Egypt, Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip, and Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and south-western Iran. The population of the Nile River Basin is about 70 million, the Jordan River Basin about 20 million, and the Tigris and Euphrates Basins about 30 million, giving the present-day Fertile Crescent a total population of approximately 120 million, or at least a third of the population of the Middle East.\n\nThe Fertile Crescent has an impressive record of past human activity. As well as possessing many sites with the skeletal and cultural remains of both pre-modern and early modern humans (e.g. at Kebara Cave in Israel), later Pleistocene hunter-gatherers and Epipalaeolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers (the Natufians), this area is most famous for its sites related to the origins of agriculture. The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known Neolithic farming settlements (referred to as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)), which date to around 9,000 BCE (and includes sites such as Jericho). This region, alongside Mesopotamia (which lies to the east of the Fertile Crescent, between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates), also saw the emergence of early complex societies during the succeeding Bronze Age. There is also early evidence from this region for writing, and the formation of state-level societies. This has earned the region the nickname "The Cradle of Civilization."\n\nSince the Bronze Age, the region's natural fertility has been greatly extended by irrigation works, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two millennia have seen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have fallen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their successors. Another ongoing problem has been salination -- the seepage of salt water into irrigated farmland.\n\nAs crucial as rivers were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor in the area's precocity. The Fertile Crescent had a climate which encouraged the evolution of many annual plants, which produce more edible seeds than perennials, and the region's dramatic variety of elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. Most importantly, the Fertile Crescent possessed the wild progenitors of the eight Neolithic founder crops important in early agriculture (i.e. wild progenitors to emmer wheat, einkorn, barley, flax, chick pea, pea, lentil, bitter vetch), and four of the five most important species of domesticated animals - cows, goats, sheep, and pigs - and the fifth species, the horse, lived nearby.\n\nIn the contemporary era, river waters remain a potential source of friction in the region. The Jordan lies on the borders of Israel, the kingdom of Jordan and the area administered by the Palestinian Authority. Turkey and Syria each control about a quarter of the length of the Euphrates, on whose lower reaches Iraq is still heavily dependent.
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B.Clay\nClay is generally particles < 2 micrometres, sand somewhere around 100 micrometres, and gravel rather in the millimetre range.\n\nA. wind erosion\nToday's (Tuesday, 14th Nov 2006) weather news show nice satellite images with dust vanes across the Canary islands. Forecasts say that some of the fine dust might even reach South America with the Passat winds. The seas before the Sahara have high sedimentation rates of desert dust.\n\nD. O-horizon\nO for organic.
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Soil and climate conditions.
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I was looking I found this was interesting:\n\nRevenue generated from oil, gas and mineral development, agricultural leasing and commercial activity on trust lands play an important role in funding public education in New Mexico.( http://www.nmstatelands.org/ )\n\n\nIf I get a chance I will look for more.
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Yea, the first answer is right.  Among many other factors, soils are made up of parent material that has decomposed.  It mostly depends on what kind of rock they came from.
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The Deccan Traps \n\nThe typical soil derived from the Deccan trap is the regur or black cotton soil. These soils vary in depth from shallow to deep. It is common in Maharashtra, western parts of Madhya Pradesh, parts of Andhra Pradesh, parts of Gujarat, and some parts of Tamil Nadu. Many black soil areas have a high degree of fertility. They are darker, deeper and richer and are constantly enriched by the additions washed down from the hills.