Mud is a liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and some combination of soil Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics, silt Silt is granular material of a grain size between sand and clay derived from soil or rock. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, and clay Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals. Clay deposits are mostly composed of clay minerals, a subtype of phyllosilicate minerals, which impart plasticity and harden when fired or dried; they also may contain variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure by polar attraction. Organic materials. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological Geology is the science and study of the physical matter and energy that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, properties, and history of the planet's physical material, the processes by which it is formed, moved, and changed, the history of life on Earth, and human interactions with the time to form sedimentary rock such as shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, or mudstone Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm (0.0025 in) with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the appearance of fissility or parallel layering. This (generally called lutites). When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea the resultant layers are termed bay muds Bay mud consists of thick deposits of soft, unconsolidated silty clay, which is saturated with water; these soil layers are situated at the bottom of certain estuaries, which are normally in temperate regions that have experienced cyclical glacial cycles. Example locations are Cape Cod Bay, Chongming Dongtan Reserve in Shanghai, China, Banc d'. Mud is closely related to slurry and sediment Sediment is naturally-occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself.
Mud, in the construction In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of multitasking. Normally the job is managed by the project manager and supervised by the construction manager, design engineer, industry, refers to wet plaster The term plaster can refer to gypsum plaster , lime plaster, or cement plaster, stucco Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a coating for walls and ceilings and for decoration. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials such as concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe, cement In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance which sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term "opus caementicium" to describe masonry which resembled concrete and was made from crushed rock with burnt lime as binder or other similar substances.[clarification needed]
Mud that is mostly clay, or a mixture of clay and sand may be used for ceramics A ceramic is an inorganic, non-metallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous . Because most common ceramics are crystalline, the definition of ceramic is often restricted to inorganic crystalline materials, as opposed to the non-, of which one form is the common fired brick A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar, or dried with the inclusion of straw reenforcing to form an unfired adobe Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, compared to brick. Adobe walls are frequently finished with a mud plaster, seen above in the introductory illustration. Such buildings must be protected from groundwater, usually by building upon a masonry, fired brick, rock or rubble foundation, and also from wind-driven rain in damp climates, usually by deep roof overhangs. In extremely dry climates a well drained flat roof may be protected with a well-prepared and properly maintained dried mud coating, viable as the mud will expand when moistened and so become more water resistant.
In ceramics, the making of liquid mud (called slip)[citation needed] is a stage in the process of refinement of the materials, since larger particles will settle from the liquid.
Mud is similar to muck, but lacking significant quantities of humus In soil science, humus refers to any organic matter that has reached a point of stability, where it will break down no further and might, if conditions do not change, remain essentially as it is for centuries, if not millennia, and often containing higher proportions of sand Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.
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As habitat
Mud plastered home in Pakistan Dried mud with wind-blown stones A lorry stuck in mudMud can provide a home for numerous types of animals, including varieties of worms The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, and stems from the Old Norse word for sea serpent. Currently it is used to describe many different distantly-related animals which have a long cylindrical body and no legs, frogs Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia (Latin salere (salio), "to jump"). Most frogs are characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits (fingers or toes), protruding eyes and the absence of a tail. Frogs are widely known as exceptional jumpers, and many of the anatomical characteristics, snails Snail is a common name for almost all members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in a general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. Otherwise snail-like creatures that lack a shell are called slugs, clams In the United States, "clam" can be used in several different ways: one, as a general term covering all bivalve molluscs. The word can also be used in a more limited sense, to mean bivalves which burrow in sediment, as opposed to ones which attach themselves to the substrate , or ones which can swim and are migratory, like scallops. In, and crayfish Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads — members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea — are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related. They breathe through feather-like gills and are found in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom; they are also mostly found in brooks and streams where there is. Other animals, such as pigs Pigs are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the family Suidae. The name hog most commonly refers to the domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the wild boar. Swine is a collective noun generally used to describe pigs as a group rather than an individual, however it may often be implied and elephants Elephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant . All other species and genera of Elephantidae are extinct, some since the last ice age: dwarf forms of mammoths may have bathe in mud in order to cool off and protect themselves from the sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It has a diameter of about 1,392,000 kilometers , about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 2 × 1030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is. Humans have also used mud as a building material, or a sealant material.
Problems
Clay soil can pose problems for traffic when moisture is present. A road built upon such soil may become stable over time as the packing of the soil will make it more water-resistant. However, any attempt to grade it can be disastrous, since excess water can then enter the surface and will be worked in by traffic, transforming portions of the road into a mud bog that can trap vehicles. The typical solution in road building is to add layers of crushed stone. The stone particles will interlock and distribute the weight of a vehicle over a larger surface area. Proper drainage is also essential when low spots are encountered by the road, usually requiring the addition of culverts to pass water underneath the elevation of the street.
Buildings constructed upon clay soil must also be properly drained around their perimeter, particularly where a perimeter foundation A foundation is a structure that transfers loads to the earth. Foundations are generally broken into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations (rather than a monolithic slab) is used. As clay will expand and soften when moisture is added, the resultant mud will squeeze out from underneath the foundation, however, in the next dry cycle it will contract, but the clay squeezed out will not return. Over a number of such cycles the foundation can sink in the moisture-cycled locations, possibly causing both wall and foundation cracks. Maintaining a constant moisture level in firm soil is important and can be effected by appropriate landscaping and landscaping maintenance. Where drainage is toward a building a French drain A French drain, drain tile, perimeter drain or land drain is a trench covered with gravel or rock that redirects surface and groundwater away from an area. A French drain can have hollow pipes along the bottom to quickly vent water that seeps down through the upper gravel or rock. French drains are common drainage systems, primarily used to may be installed to route water around the building.
Saint Louis discovered problems with mud when in 2006 had a breakout of rashes after their Mighty Mud Mania Event.[1]
As food
Haiti consumes a large variety of different non-traditional foods in an attempt to quelch hunger pains. Mud cakes are traditionally fashioned and consumed, but items such as clay and chalk can also be eaten. Due to recent increases in food prices and growing starvation in Haiti, this habit has been extended and received much media attention.[2]
Outside of hunger, mud and dirt can be consumed accidentally during sports and other outdoor activities. This has led to dysphemisms In language, dysphemism , malphemism (in Latin malus "bad"), and cacophemism (in Greek kakos κακός "bad") refer to the usage of an intentionally harsh word or expression instead of a polite one; they are rough opposites of euphemism for poor-tasting food such as "tastes like dirt", based on the experience of getting mud, dirt, etc. in one's teeth.
There also exist children's recipes for "mud", which is generally a chocolate or cornstarch-based sludge used more for visual appeal than actual taste. Never does this confectionery mud actually contain real mud.[3]
Recreation
Mud is used in mud wrestling as a form of entertainment. A mud bath is an alternative-medicine treatment. It can also be used in a dunk tank A dunk tank, also known as a dunking booth or dunking machine, is an attraction mainly used in funfairs, fundraisers, and personal parties. Basically, a dunk tank consists of a large tank of water, over which a seat is suspended. By striking a target, the seat will tip or fall into the tank of water, thus "dunking" whoever is sitting on.
Mud is also used in mud bogging Mud bogging, also known as mud racing, mud running, mud drags, or simply muddin'; is a form of off-road motorsport popular in Canada and the United States in which the goal is to drive a vehicle through a pit of mud of a set length. Winners are determined by the distance traveled through the pit or, if several vehicles are able to travel the in which customized vehicles are raced through mud trenches.
See also
- Drilling mud In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid is a fluid used to drill boreholes into the earth. Often used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells. The three main categories of drilling fluids are water-based muds , non-aqueous muds,
- Muck (soil)
- Mudcrete Mudcrete is a structural material made of mixing mud (usually marine mud) with sand and concrete/cement. It is used as a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to rock fill. It is also used in such projects as land reclamation
- Mud flap
- Mud volcano The term mud volcano or mud dome is used to refer to formations created by geo-excreted liquids and gases, although there are several different processes which may cause such activity. Temperatures are much cooler than igneous processes. The largest structures are 10 km in diameter and reach 700 metres in height.[citation needed]
- Peloid Peloid is mud, or clay used therapeutically, as part of balneotherapy, or therapeutic bathing. Peloids consist of humus and minerals formed over many years by geological and biological, chemical and physical processes
References
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mud |
- ^ http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/index.cfm?ViewMe=6513
- ^ Haiti: Mud cakes become staple diet
- ^ http://www.cookadvice.com/recipes/magic_mud-36597-recipe.htm
Categories: Aquatic ecology Categories: Subfields of ecology | Water | Limnology | Soil Categories: Granular materials | Natural materials | Natural resources | Agriculture
Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:34:49 GMT+00:00
at Delhi spending plan DesMoinesRegister.com (blog) Chet Culver and Congressman Bruce Braley are declining to throw mud over the way the politicians are handling the aftermath of last weekend's northeast Iowa ...
Jenn
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:57:30 GM
One Response to Let the . Mud. Fly! Thomas Stoops to Negative Campaigning in Republican AG Primary . Tom Horne Responds to Andrew Thomas' Attacks reappropriate says: July 28, 2010 at 5:18 pm. [...] posted, not four hours ago, ...
Q. Mud daubers have built their nests in my table saw, bandsaw, drill press, roll-around toolbox, drawers. . . everywhere. I can't seal the shop up as tight as a house-- it has a concrete floor, metallic roof and cedar board siding and it is uninsulated. Is there any kind of spray or fogger that will rid me of them? Discourage them from returning? I live in rural south-central Texas. These critters are just part of life here and I get along with them fine, but I'd sure like to keep 'em from building nests in my shop.
Asked by sarge - Thu Jun 29 15:57:54 2006 - - 6 Answers - 0 Comments
A. I am a pest control operator. It is difficult to prevent them from coming in. The mud tube they build is for them to lay an egg. The wasp will sting an insect (usually a spider) and the sting paralyzes the insect. They drag it to the mud tube, lay an egg on the paralyzed insect. When the larva hatches, it has a fresh food supply to feed on. So, they are beneficial insects. They seldom sting people, but those mud tubes are very hard and can damage stuff. We painted the under side of a patio cover sky blue 2 years ago and we have not had a single wasp nest or mud dauber tube there yet. So we are thinking it works.
Answered by Barbara G - Fri Jun 30 09:52:28 2006
