GEMET
General
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Environmental
Thesaurus
clay
Definition

A loose, earthy, extremely fine-grained, natural sediment or soft rock composed primarily of clay-size or colloidal particles and characterized by high plasticity and by a considerable content of clay mineral and subordinate amounts of finely divided quartz, decomposed feldspar, carbonates, ferruginous matter, and other impurities; it forms a plastic, moldable mass when finely ground and mixed with water, retains its shape on drying, and becomes firm, rocklike and permanently hard on heating or firing.

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    Wikipedia article:
  • Clay
Scope note

Scope note is not available.

Concept URL: http://www.eionet.europa.eu/gemet/concept/1449