VOIDS

Packing voids. Voids due to the random packing of individuals.

Simple Packing Voids. Voids formed by the random packing of single skeletal grains.
Compound Packing Voids. Voids resulting from the random packing of compound individuals (peds) that do not accommodate each other.

Chambers. Walls are regular and smoothed (metavoids) and they are interconnected through channels, and usually have a characteristic shape.

Channels. Larger than packing voids, and have a generally cylindrical shape. They commonly have smoothed walls, regular conformation, and a relatively uniform cross-sectional size and shape.

Planes. Simple voids that are planar. By virtue of their shape and extent they constitute an obvious deviation form the normal packing of soil material.

Joint Planes. Planar voids that traverse the soil material in some fairly regular pattern, such as parallel or subparallel sets.
Skew Planes. Planar voids that traverse the soil material in an irregular manner, having no specific basic distribution or orientation pattern between individuals. Usually formed by soil desiccation.
Craze Planes. Planar voids with a highly complex conformation of the walls due to the interconnection of numberous short and/or curved planes.

Vughs. Relatively large voids, other than packing voids, usually irregular and not normally interconnected with other voids of comparable size; at the magnifications at which they are recognized they appear as discrete entities.

Vesicles. Walls consist of smooth, simple curves; they are smoothed (metavoids) and regular; usually unconnected.

Orthovoids. Walls appear morphologically to be due to unaltered, random packing of plasma and skeleton grains.

Metavoids. Walls appear to be significantly smoother than would result from random packing of plasma and sketeton grains.

This page (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/plymouth/programs/units.html) created by
Vera MacConnell, Research Technician, I on December 16, 1997.
Last Updated on December 16, 1997.