What is a red, porous clay?

Question

What types of clay are red and porous?.... Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Clay in an agricultural sense is not particularly porous unless it is laid down with a good mixture of silt and or sand to keep clay crystals from lining up into tightly knit sheets.

Very pure clay will typically be very imperfious to movement of water. Laid down by running water clay can be very nicely mixed with silt in every layer, moderately pourous and a great rooting medium. Laid down far out at sea or close to the far end of a long lake, clay is likely to be good for pottery, or lining a pond to retain water.

Answer 2

Georgia has red clay soils, they have high iron conten.  The iron oxidizes (rusts) causing the color.

Answer 3

here in texas a lot of good red pouous clay soils are in river bottom lands, the soil has a lot of sand and iron in it

Answer 4

Soil is a naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose material on the surface of the earth, capable of supporting life.[1] In simple terms, soil has three components: solid, liquid, and gas. The solid phase is a mixture of mineral and organic matter. Soil particles pack loosely, forming a soil structure filled with voids.[2] The solid phase occupies about half of the soil volume. The remaining void space contains water (liquid) and air (gas).[3]

Answer 5

The red part of your question is easy, it is clay from an area that is well drained and has a high iron oxide content giving it an earthly red color.  The second part of your question must be referring to red pottery. Pottery made of clay and dried under low heat is porous.  This is what you would see in things like most flower pots.  If the pottery is dried in very high temperatures it becomes glazed, with a shiny type of finish.  Glazed pottery is non-porous.