Mineralogy and Geochemistry of Some Soils of Siwalik Hills

Mineralogy and total elemental composition of eight profiles representing different physiographic units of the Siwalik hills under udic zone of Punjab were investigated. The light mineral assemblages in sand and silt fractions comprise of quartz, mica, feldspars, chlorite and calcite with relatively higher proportion of quartz in the sand fraction and of mica in the silt fraction. Heavy sand fraction includes wide variety of minerals such as zircon, tourmaline, rutile, garnet, epidote, chlorite, biotite, staurolite, kyanite, sillimanite and opaques. The soils are higher in K than Na amongst the alkalies, and higher in Mg than Ca (except in calcareous soils) amongst the alkaline earth metals chiefly due to preponderance of K and Mg bearing minerals. Potassium, Mg, Zn and Cu have positive and significant correlation with clay, silt and CaCO₃ contents whereas Mn shows a positive correlation with sand. Organic matter is not correlated with total content of any of the elements.