Does the Earth gain soil over the years?

Question

I ask after reading several things about archeological digs they often refer to the ground level for said times (like what was the groung level in Rome 400 years ago is many feet below the surface now) is where they need to reach to find interesting artifacts. How does the Earth gain so much soil the past surface level is constantly buried?

Answer 1

Yes it does. There are two things that happen, first, any dirt that is disturbed will leave a small amount of stuff (dirt, dust & whatever) in the air. The wind blows and distributes around the world. Sometimes this can be a very large amount as seen in a volcano. Second there are millions of particles that enter out atmosphere and settles down to the ground. At first this seems bairly perceptable but look at it over hendreds or thousands of years.

If you park your car outside you will see that the longer it sets the more dust and dirt that gets on it.

Answer 2

Soil builds up, but very slowly. Soil is the mixture of organic matter and other materials in which plants grow. There are not several meters of soil anywhere on the earth. The max is about a yard deep and mostly it's only a few inches. Soil is a precious resource that builds up very gradually over time, the byproduct of life, deposited by plants and animals. Soil can be eroded, but so can other materials such as sand and gravel.

Soil, sand, silt, gravel, etc are moved around grossly by water, be it rainfall or flooding. This is likely what buries old occupied sites, as well as the detritus of human activity, from bones to various kinds of more high-tech garbage. Since soil is a small part of the bulk of material, most of what is deposited will not be soil. Conquerers or builders knock down the old and build the new on top of it. Not all deposition is from erosion. Italy, for example, has volcanoes. Other places have landslides. Any place with a slope is going to have soil and subsoil movement in various conditions, be they due to earth movements or water movement of materials.

Answer 3

An interesting question. Not all places gain soil over the years. Look at the Oklahoma dust bowl in the 1930s. Some places get buried by land slips or by dust blowing over them. There's a continuous slow cycle in which rock is broken up by weathering, to make more soil, and in other places soil is compacted underneath accumulated debris to make more rock. Underwater, the sludge which accumulates on the ocean floor is gradually compressed by more debris settling on it to become sedimentary rock. My guess is that by now, a steady state has been reached, and the net amount of soil stays approximately the same.

Answer 4

Some parts gain soil, some part lose it. It all averages out.

Places where people live, tend to gain soil, because of all the trash, food, pottery, etc. that people bring into the towns and cities. And especially bricks and rocks for buildings. Back then, they just threw the trash out into the back yard, and let it rot. If the stink got too bad, they would bury it. Or a building would burn down, and the broken rocks would be thrown into the lot next door.

Answer 5

Yes the earth does gain over the years but that isn't what's happening with the buried levels. The earth soils moves constantly and if something isn't maintained, it will usually be buried over hundreds of years. Space debris is constantly falling on earth even as ash many times.

Answer 6

I believe it does, since it is expanding, it automatically creates its own soil.

Also, when things die, like us, or something rots in the ground, makes the ground rich in soil, and continues to distribute.

Answer 7

mass is constant more or less...

Generally, soil is "redistributed" through errosion processes, while some soil is "formed" through decomposition of organic materials.

Answer 8

no it is just redistributed.