Why is dirt bown?

Answer 1

All dirt is not one color, it has various colors which is determined by the content of the soil. Order: The broadest category in the system. Distinctions between orders are based largely on horizon morphology, with (unfortunately in some cases) soil genesis as an underlying factor. In general, each order is presumed to contain soils whose common properties suggest similar genesis. There are 12 orders in the taxonomy, but the key hasn't been updated to include the 12th yet. Eight of the 12 have been identified in Mississippi. More information on 11 of the orders is linked below.
Suborder: The suborders are subdivisions of the order based on factors such as wetness, climate (temperature and moisture), mode of deposition, texture, or diagnostic horizons. The number of suborders varies from four to seven within orders.
Great Group: Diagnostic horizons are often used to differentiate great groups within a suborder. For example, the presence or absence of an argillic horizon might distinguish one great group from another. (Argillic horizons are layers with observable clay accumulation in the soil profile. There are many soils in Mississippi containing argillics.)
Subgroup: The subgroups are subdivisions of the great groups. The typical, or central, concept of the great group makes one subgroup (Typic). Often, other subgroups are intergrades between the current great group and the central concepts of other great groups (i.e., mollic subgroups of Alfisols).
Family: The family category allows the grouping of members of a subgroup by such things as common texture, mineralogy, pH, soil temperature, coarse fragment content, or soil depth. This level of the system is often the most useful one for interpretations because it is the most descriptive.
Series: Soil series represents a collection of soils essentially uniform in most differentiating characteristics and the arrangement of horizons. This is level most often identified by farmers and the NRCS. Names are usually based on towns near where the soil was first identifed. There are about 700 named soils in Mississippi. Common series in the Mississippi Delta are Alligator, Sharkey, Dundee, Dobbs, and Forestdale. Prentiss, Ruston, Grenada, Memphis, Oktibbeha, and Smithdale are found in the hill portions of the state.

Answer 2

Generally, it's because of a high content of plant fibers and the breakdown products of plant chemicals (especially tannins, as far as color goes) that constitute much of the organic fraction of the dirt. Less plant material, and you have soil whose color reflects more of its mineral composition, as above. (Compare lunar soil, which has no organic content.) Soils with lots of organic materials tend to converge in hue because whether the plant material is the result of chemical decomposition, microbial breakdown, burning, or defecation by herbivores and scavengers, it's still basically a limited set of chemicals (especially cellulose) with a pretty predictable process of decomposition. In a practical sense, the only real organic material in soil is plant material, since only plants turn CO2 into solid organic compounds--basically all that the rest of the food web functionally serves to accomplish is redistribution and some transformation of those same compounds--and that, too, follows predictable chemical pathways; waste is waste, in the end.

Answer 3

The minerals present determine the color. Some dirt is brown, some is red, some is yellow, some is nearly white and some is black as coal. Depends on where you are and the chemical makeup.

Answer 4

cuz every1 shits in it