Surface soil of the island
The soil of the central part of Kish, its elevated section, is 35–40 meters above sea level. The construction of the airport in this section of the island, which involved leveling part of its land to create the runway and other facilities and structures related to the airport, as well as the extraction of sand and construction activities such as smoothing the ground or leveling hills and filling depressions and pits—all of these caused the old shallow soft living soil of this part of the island, which had a colloidal and crusty character, to be less than 20 centimeters. Therefore the soil that now exists in parts of the island in place of them, manually placed, was not useful, lacked any necessary quality and colloidal character and any humus (leaf mold), and finally is different from the old soil. Of course the soil around the airport runway, due to protection of the airport boundary, is still pristine and untouched.
The soil of the western part of the island comprises almost half of the island's surface. Because of the slight and minimal slope of the land, washing and erosion occur there little. The soil of this part of the island is very good and its thickness is about 70 centimeters or a little more, and includes half of the eroded soils of the central part of the island which have been spread over this area by washing and rainwater flow.
The soils of the eastern, northeastern and southeastern parts of the island are smoother than the previously mentioned parts. The northeastern coastal strip is smoother than the southeastern coastal strip and its soil is intermediate between the central part and the western part.
The soil of the northern part of the island is somewhat relatively soft and has a thick crust and sometimes has many pits and hollows.
The type of surface soil of Kish Island is overall a mixture of clay, silt, sand and gravel and more or less soil from decomposed remains of animal tissues (natural manure) and plant remains (humus). Its central part’s soil is mostly coral and its surface from the center to the shore is usually covered by a mixture of clay and decomposed soils. The surface of the eastern and southeastern coastal strip is also covered by almost uniform white and shiny coral sands. The rocky faces of the northeastern and eastern coastal strip that are exposed to wave impact are composed of porous gravels and pebbles.