A computer program to express the properties of gypsiferous soils

Abstract

Data from gypsiferous soils on an oven-dry basis cannot be compared with similar data from nongypsiferous soils because gypsum loses most of its crystal water on drying at 105 °C. A short computer program that uses the successive-approximation technique was developed to convert percent gypsum values determined on an air-dry basis or on an oven-dry basis into percent gypsum values determined on an oven-dry basis plus crystal water of gypsum. Percent gypsum and percent moisture of the analyzed soil samples are the required input data. The program calculates the corrected percent moisture and the percent gypsum on an oven-dry basis plus crystal water of the gypsum. The output of the program allows a comparison of gypsum contents, and any other properties, of gypsiferous soils after obtaining the correct moisture contents of the gypsiferous soils and makes these properties comparable with those of nongypsiferous soils. Key words: Percent gypsum, computer program, water content, gypsiferous soils