Physicochemical bases of differences between the sedimentometric and laser-diffraction techniques of soil particle-size analysis

Comparison of the particle-size distributions in different soils showed that the sedimentation method (Kachinskii pipette method) gives higher (by 1.5-5 times) values of the clay content than the laser diffraction method. This is related to the significant variation in density of soil solids, which is taken to be constant in the sedimentation method. Therefore, particles of significantly larger size and lower density fall into this fraction. Using optical, electron, and confocal microscopy, it was shown that the low density of soil particles of silt size falling into the sedimentometric clay fraction is related to the organomineral shell (film) around the soil microparticles. This shell contributes to the linking of microparticles into aggregates at the lower average density. As a result, these aggregates have significantly larger size and lower density and settle with the same velocity as the small particles with the average density of the solid phase during the sedimentation particle-size analysis.