What soil is produced from metamorphic rock?

Question

What soil is produced from metamorphic rock?

Answer 1

You're talking a little bit about the rock cycle. Metamorphic rocks through weathering and erosion ( wind, ice, water and chemiclas ) can break down and form sediment again. The sediment mixes with dead plant and animal life and you have soil.

I spent quite awhile trying to find soils related to the weatherning of metamorphic rocks and came up with nothing, however I decided to try looking at types of soil and work backwards. I did come across a soil that appears to be formed from metamorphic type rocks and containing minerals from the metamorphic rock plus it sedimentary or igneous equivalent. Here is what I found:

" Alfisol:  ... most years. "  "  Mostly derived from granites, gneisses and schists but occasionally from sandstone, mica, quartzite and shale. "

- gneiss, schists, mica,  - metamorphic

- granite changes to gneiss

Classification of soils of the world

by Dr J Floor Anthoni

http://www.seafriends.org.nz/enviro/soil...

Answer 2

Depends on the metamorphic rock...  Marble is a metamorphic rock and is basically calcium carbonate.  Quartzite is a metamorphic rock, and is basically silica (silicon dioxide).  Gneiss is a metamorphic rock and is just overcooked granite (silica, calcium, sodium...).  

So: The soils produced from metamorphic rocks depend on the chemical composition of the respective metamorphic rocks.  So do the soils produced from sedimentary rocks and volcanic rocks.  All soils depend on their parent rocks and their chemical compositions...

And if the conditions are right and soils turn into rocks, then the rock compositions will depend on the soil composition...