Laterite quarry from Angadipuram, India (internet image)
"Laterite" is an antiquated term referring to hardened soil that contains large amounts of plinthite.
Laterite is considered both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminum and most commonly formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolonged weathering of the underlying parent rock, usually when there are conditions of high temperatures and heavy rainfall with alternate wet and dry periods. Tropical weathering (laterization) is a prolonged process of chemical weathering which produces a wide variety in the thickness, grade, chemistry and ore mineralogy of the resulting soils. The majority of the land area containing laterites is between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
With laterite being referred to as a soil type as well as being a rock type with variation in the modes of conception--there has been calls for the term to be abandoned altogether. Material that looks highly similar to the Indian laterite occurs abundantly worldwide.
Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument-building. After 1000 CE, construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick, and stone. Similar materials in the US have not sufficiently hardened to be mined as building blocks. This material has been referred to as "soft" plinthite.
Laterites are a source of aluminum ore; the ore exists largely in clay minerals and the hydroxides, gibbsite, boehmite, and diaspore, which resembles the composition of bauxite. In Northern Ireland they once provided a major source of iron and aluminum ores.
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...
Laterite quarry from Angadipuram, India (internet image)
"Laterite" is an antiquated term referring to hardened soil that contains large amounts of plinthite.
Laterite is considered both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminum and most commonly formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by intensive and prolonged weathering of the underlying parent rock, usually when there are conditions of high temperatures and heavy rainfall with alternate wet and dry periods. Tropical weathering (laterization) is a prolonged process of chemical weathering which produces a wide variety in the thickness, grade, chemistry and ore mineralogy of the resulting soils. The majority of the land area containing laterites is between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
With laterite being referred to as a soil type as well as being a rock type with variation in the modes of conception--there has been calls for the term to be abandoned altogether. Material that looks highly similar to the Indian laterite occurs abundantly worldwide.
Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument-building. After 1000 CE, construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick, and stone. Similar materials in the US have not sufficiently hardened to be mined as building blocks. This material has been referred to as "soft" plinthite.
Laterites are a source of aluminum ore; the ore exists largely in clay minerals and the hydroxides, gibbsite, boehmite, and diaspore, which resembles the composition of bauxite. In Northern Ireland they once provided a major source of iron and aluminum ores.
For more information about a plinthic horizon, visit;
www.researchgate.net/publication/242649722_Rationale_for_...
or;
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00167061220043...