Skip to main

eLter

You are using a development system of the emerging eLTER Research Infrastructure (RI). Please note that this service is still under construction and may not yet be fully functional.

Preferred term

silt

Definition

  • [ ENM ][ ECSO ] Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Wikipedia: In the Udden-Wentworth scale (due to Krumbein), silt particles range between 0.0039 to 0.0625 mm, larger than clay but smaller than sand particles. ISO 14688 grades silts between 0.002 mm and 0.063 mm. In actuality, silt is chemically distinct from clay, and unlike clay, grains of silt are approximately the same size in all dimensions; furthermore, their size ranges overlap. Clays are formed from thin plate-shaped particles held together by electrostatic forces, so present a cohesion. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Texture Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.05 mm particle size. The USDA system has been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) and the AASHTO Soil Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.075 mm particle size (i.e., material passing the #200 sieve). Silts and clays are distinguished mechanically by their plasticity.

Broader concept

Creator

  • herbert.schentz@umweltbundesamt.at

In other languages

Arabic

  • غرين

Bulgarian

  • Тиня, утайка, нанос

Croatian

  • mulj

Czech

  • naplavenina

Danish

  • silt

Dutch

  • slib

Estonian

  • tolm (pedol), möll (geol), aleuriit

Finnish

  • siltti, muta, pohjalieju

French

  • limon

German

  • Schlick

Greek

  • (φυσική) ιλύς

Hungarian

  • iszaptalaj

Italian

  • limo

Latvian

  • nogulumi; sanesas

Lithuanian

  • dumblas; sąnašos

Norwegian

  • silt

Polish

  • muł

Portuguese

  • sedimentos finos

Romanian

  • sedimente fine

Slovak

  • naplavenina

Slovenian

  • mulj

Spanish

  • légamo

Swedish

  • mjäla

URI

http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/20922

Download this concept