Acid sulfate soils occur in the Gimhae plain where they have been formed from brackish alluvial sediments along the sea coast and river estuary. Acid sulfate soils suffer extremely acidity as a result of oxidation of pyrite. Total sulfur content of the soils was the highest in B horizon of Gimhae series and the lowest in A horizon of Deunggu series. The dominant fractions of sulfur in the soils were jarosite-S for Gimhae series, pyrite-S for Bongrim and Haecheog series, and organic-S for Deunggu series. The essential chemical processes of acid sulfate soils are, firstly, the formation of pyrite in waterlogged environment, and subsequently, the oxidation of this pyrite following natural or artificial drainage. Jarosite [K Fe3(SO4)2(OH)6] is a common sulfur mineral of the oxidation condition. Jarosite shows cubic particles with tetrahedral faces.

Usual experimental adsorption isotherms as a function of relative humidity were constructed from adsorbed water contents in soils, which were kept more than 2 days in vacuum desiccators with constant humidities controlled by sulfuric acids of various concentrations. From the experimental data, the adsorption surface areas were calculated on the basis of the existing adsorption theory, such as Langmuir, BET, and Aranovich. Based on the Gibbs function describing chemical potential of perfect gas, the relative humidities in the desiccators were transformed into their chemical potentials, which were assumed to be the same as the potentials of equilibratedly adsorbed water in soils. Moreover, the water potentials were again transformed into the equivalent capillary pressures, heads of capillary rise, and equivalent radius of capillary pores, on the basis of Laplace equation for surface tension pressure of spherical bubbles in water. Adsorption quantity distributions were calculated on the profile of chemical potentials of the adsorbed water, equivalent adsorption and/or capillary pressures, and equivalent capillary radius. The suggested theories were proved through its application for the prediction of temperature rise of sulfuric acid due to hydration heat. Adsorption heat calculated on the basis of the potential difference was dependant on various factors, such as surface area, equilibrium constants in Langumuir, BET, etc.