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Geography Optional 300+ Score Pack · Model answer

Soil type in India, classified on the basis of colour, possess specific chemical and mineral characteristics. Discuss.

  • UPSC 2020
  • Physical Setting

Colour in Indian soils is not descriptive but diagnostic. It records the mineralogy of the parent rock and the chemistry of the weathering that acted on it, which is why a classification built on colour turns out to be a classification by composition.

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What the full answer covers

  • Red Soils — Iron Oxide on Crystalline Rock
  • Black Soils — Basalt and Its Legacy
  • Laterite — Colour as the Record of Leaching
  • Alluvial Soils — Colour by Age and Drainage
  • Other Parent-Rock Signatures
  • Where the Colour Rule Now Misleads

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