An Introduction . . . Probably not one person out of a hundred could give you an accurate definition. Almost everybody knows that plants grow in soil, yet they may tell you that soil is another name for dirt.
Dirt is the stuff people track in houses.
It may blow on the wind, color a river brown or stain your clothing. Dirt may come from soil, but once it stains your pants or carpet, it s no longer soil. The mixture of mineral and organic materials on the surface of the earth in which land plants grow. They are nonliving, or abiotic . Nearly 3,000 different types of minerals have been discovered and named.