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A Thermogravimetric Approach to the Classification of Organic Soils¹

ABSTRACT

The thermogravimetric method is shown to offer a simple but valid and meaningful method for assessing the degree of humification of organic soils. Heights of the 280C maxima in the differential thermogravimetric (DTG) curves of 22 organic soil samples, ranging from peats, mucky peats, peaty mucks to mucks, were inversely proportional to the degree of humification as determined by pyrophosphate solubility. Highly significant negative correlations were found between peak height at 280C and (i) solubility in 0.025_M sodium pyrophosphate solution, (ii) percent ash, and (iii) percent moisture. The analytical data were fitted by the method of least squares to polynomials of various degrees on an IBM 1620 computer. The thermogravimetric technique offers a new approach to the classification of organic soils and should also find wide application in humification studies.

¹ Contribution No. 150 of the Soil Research Institute and No. 67 of Analytical Chemistry Research Service, Canada Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Ontario. The authors thank A. J. MacLean and J. Day for providing soil samples and for advice on the pyrophosphate test. The assistance of D. S. Gamble in setting up the computer program is also gratefully acknowledged.

² Research Officers.

Received for publication June 16, 1965. Accepted for publication September 8, 1965.