Question

What is intense leaching?

Answer 1

Hint: You've undoubtedly seen the chemical process of leaching in action, even if you don't know what it means. If you've ever made instant coffee or brewed a cup of tea, you've seen leaching in action. The process of removing a substance from a solid material that has come into contact with a liquid is known as leaching.

Complete answer:
The loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil as a result of rain or irrigation is referred to as leaching. Intensive leaching occurs when leaching reaches its maximum level and begins to contaminate subsurface water.

The liquid is crucial in leaching because it promotes the removal, or extraction, of a particular component from a solid matrix (i.e. material). Let's take the example of brewing tea to break out this definition.

You enter your kitchen and decide to make a steaming cup of green tea. To make the tea, you'll need a green tea bag, hot water, and a cup, of course. We may tie each of these components to the notion of leaching as shown in this diagram: (1) Our solid matrix would be a tea bag, (2) the substance extracted would be green tea, and (3) the liquid source would be hot water. .

Returning to our tea-making scenario, you begin by pouring boiling water into a cup. What do you notice as you steep your green tea bag in hot water? The water not only changes colour, but it also contains green tea, which is extracted from the tea bag and dissolved in the water. After a few minutes of steeping, you take a drink from your mug and are greeted with not just hot water, but also wonderful green tea.

Although preparing tea is a well-known operation, it also serves as an excellent illustration of how leaching works. To brew a cup of tea, you introduce a solid matrix, such as a tea bag, to a liquid, in this case hot water, and extract green tea, or a substance.

Note:-
Extraction is a term used in the chemical industry to describe the process of leaching. Let's take a look at how the leaching, or extraction, process works in this diagram. The solvent makes contact with the solid matrix first. The term "solvent" refers to a liquid that is used to dissolve a material or solute. A solute is the substance that a solvent dissolves. The solute would be the substance you want to extract from the solid matrix, and the solvent would be the liquid. In our tea example, the solute would be the green tea that was extracted, and the solvent would be hot water.