Clay Quiz

Clay: A Fine-Grained Natural Rock or Soil

• Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals and develops plasticity when wet but can be hardened through firing.
• Clay is the oldest known ceramic material and has been used for making pottery and writing tablets.
• Between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population live or work in buildings made with clay, often baked into brick, as an essential part of its load-bearing structure.
• Shale, formed largely from clay, is the most common sedimentary rock.
• The defining mechanical property of clay is its plasticity when wet and its ability to harden when dried or fired.
• Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicate minerals and give clay its plasticity and cohesion.
• Clay minerals have a high surface area, and their chemistry is important to soil fertility.
• Soils containing swelling clay minerals pose a considerable challenge for civil engineering, as they can break foundations of buildings and ruin road beds.
• Clay minerals most commonly form by prolonged chemical weathering of silicate-bearing rocks and depending on the composition of the source rock and the climate, different clay minerals are formed.
• Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain.
• Clay is used in many industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtering.
• Clay is used in medicine as an anti-diarrheal medicine.