Co-Authored By:
Dark brown or black color in soil indicates that the soil has a high organic matter content. Wet soil will appear darker than dry soil. manganese oxide causes a black color, glauconite makes the soil green, and calcite can make soil in arid regions appear white.
Keeping this in consideration, what causes black dirt?
Why Soil Turns Black According to Cornell University, the darker the soil, the higher the level of organic matter. High levels of iron or magnesium can also cause soil to turn black. Similarly, clay-heavy soils are often more darkly colored lower in the soil structure than sand-heavy soils.
Also question is, what is black dirt made of?
Black dirt's organic matter consists primarily of decomposing plant material. From 60 to 90 percent of that material is made up of water, and the remainder is a mixture of chemical components that are important nutrients for plants.
Black earth (the real stuff) is a type of soil officially called chernozem. It is very rich in humus, chock full of NPK and ideal for growing most nutrient-dependant plants, including vegetables. Its usually found in what were originally low-lying, marshy areas, now mostly drained and being used for agriculture.