So what is Clay? You will get different answers for this question from different people based on their interests and experiences. So let’s see what kind of responses you might get:
A gardener - “Clay is an important part of the soil”
A builder - “Clay is used in making bricks”
A potter - “Clay is used in pottery”
Common Man - “Clay is just like soil”
And you will get more varied responses from a Geologist, Chemist and a Mineralogist.
Let’s understand where it comes from first!
Source of Clay: The earth’s crust is composed of two kinds of rocks - sedimentary rocks and igneous rocks. Different environmental factors that apply different kinds of force individually or collectively on these rocks cause weathering of these rocks which converts to CLAY. The weathering actions could be physical actions or chemical actions. For example, moving water (in the form of rain water flowing or river streams or waves from the sea) constantly erode the rocks breaking them into smaller fragments. Wind blowing with high velocity carry the fragments (or grains) and further distracts the particles. Even ice (glaciers) moves rocks with great force breaking them into smaller particles.
All these natural weathering agents convert rocks into fine clay ceramic material. We will look into the details in subsequent articles.
