Aggregate stability of south Chilean volcanic ash soils – A combined XPS, contact angle, and surface charge analysis

Soils developed from volcanic ash deposits vary extremely in physical and chemical soil properties and are known to degrade easily through erosion or soil compaction, which limits intensive utilization. Our objective was to test if aggregate stability, AS, as a key factor for erodibility, can be assessed from surface parameters, namely particle wettability in terms of the solid–water contact angle, CA, and the specific surface charge, SSC. To...