Are soil and dirt one and the same, and is it possible to run out of either? Hypothetically speaking, is there a set amount of soil on Earth? How does more soil get generated?
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The word “soil” describes a subset of “dirt”. All soil is dirt, but not all dirt is soil.
All dirt contains a combination of some pulverized rock and some decaying organic debris. If the ratio of organic stuff to rock stuff is such that there’s a lot of organic stuff and only a little rock stuff, we tend to call that kind of dirt “soil”. At the opposite extreme where it’s all pulverized rock with no organic stuff, that stuff we tend to call “sand” (and that some people wouldn’t call “dirt”, as they assume “dirt” implies at least *some* organic stuff.)
But if you’re looking for the dividing line between dirt that has a high enough organic ratio to be called “soil” and dirt that doesn’t, good luck. There isn’t an objective hard line. It’s a fuzzy subjective definition.
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