Mineralogy of soils from different Agroecological Regions of Bangladesh: Region 18-young Meghna Estuarine Floodplain

Bangladesh is consisting of 30 Agroecological Regions (AEZs) and the applied agricultural research has been conducted based on this. In context of the lack of enough information on mineralogy based on AEZs, an attempt has been taken to study the mineralogy of important soils from all AEZs of Bangladesh in order to provide basic information for applied research. As part of this attempt, the mineralogy of twenty four soils from three representative soil series (Ramgati, Hatiya and Silonia) of AEZ 18, Young Meghna Estuarine Floodplain, has been reported in the current paper. The clay content of the surface soils ranged from 8.7 to 29.4%. According to the USDA system, thirteen soil samples were silt loam, eight were silt and only one was silty clay loam. The <2 μm clay fraction was dominated by mica. Chlorite and kaolinite were also identified as dominant mineral in almost all soils. Smectite, and vermiculite and/or vermiculite-chlorite intergrade minerals were also detected in most soils. The variation in the mineralogical composition was supposed to be attributed from the difference in the proportion of parent sediments from three major rivers of Bangladesh.