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Story: Soils

The land’s thin skin

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The land’s thin skin

A soil may be a few centimetres or several metres deep. Underlying it will be solid or fractured rock, or gravel. Even the deepest soils are only a relatively thin layer over the land’s surface. Most plants get their nourishment from the soil layer, close to the surface.

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Massey University

by Alan Palmer

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How to cite this page

Allan Hewitt, Soils – The land’s thin skin, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/12260/the-lands-thin-skin (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Allan Hewitt, published 1 March 2009.