Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mineralogy Of Kentucky Soils, Anastasios D. Karathanasis

Soil Science News and Views

Very few mineralogical data have been published for soils in Kentucky. As an initial attempt to classify mineralogy of the subsoil, a general mineralogy map of the state was constructed based on currently available information (Fig. 1). The map suggests that quartz, mica, and feldspars are the dominant minerals of the sqnd and silt size fractions and that illite, smectite, kaolinite and hydroxyinterlayered vermiculite or smectite dominate the clay size soil fraction. Soils of the Western Coalfields, Eastern Coalfields, and Eastern Pennyrile regions generally contain more quartz in the sand and silt fraction than soils of the Purchase, Western Pennyrile, …