Exploitation of the principles governing salt and water movement in clay soils in order to develop a method of reclamation

Tanton, T.W. and Rycroft, D.W. (1990) Exploitation of the principles governing salt and water movement in clay soils in order to develop a method of reclamation. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Land Drainage for Salinity Control in Arid and Semi-arid regions, Cairo. 1990. Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, Cairo Drainage Research Institute, Water Research Centre, International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement. pp. 72-90 .

Abstract

Salt movement in clays and the importance of diffusion to it are discussed. Diffusion, shown to be the main process by which salts move from the poorly permeable mass of the soil to the network of macropores in which drainage occurs, is a relatively slow process. But is not as much a limiting factor on the leaching of salts from clays as poor internal drainage. Laboratory and field investigations have shown that salts can be rapidly leached from clay soils if the soils are restructured into smaller units so that the salt is more accessible and the soil more permeable. However the improved soil structure is adversely affected by soil overburden weight and by the soil slaking which occurs when the soil is first wetted. Accordingly, the maximum depth for such restructuring is between 500 and 800 mm, and the moisture content at the time of first wetting should also not be allowed to fall below 24% w/w.

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