Abstract
According to Alexander and Cady (1962), laterite is a highly weathered material rich in secondary oxides of iron, aluminum, or both. It is nearly void of bases and primary silicates, but it may contain large amounts of quartz and kaolinite. It is either hard or capable of hardening upon exposure to wetting and drying. This general definition is based on the original work of Buchanan (1807), modified by the work of many others since then. However, the term laterite is perhaps one of the most misused terms in earth sciences. Many inconsistencies and confusion exist in the literature about the term laterite and the process of laterization. The term has been adopted by geologists, mineralogists, mining engineers, and pedologists, and today it encompasses materials that show some kind of sesquioxide accumulation and ranges from weathered rock to hard and cemented ironstone. Further complication was introduced in tropical soils literature, when terms such as laterite profile and lateritic soils were introduced. Due to this confusion in soils literature, Kellogg (1949) introduced the term latosol—LAT derived from laterite—to distinguish them from laterites, but later Maignien (1966) proposed to abandon the term laterite. The reader is referred to this excellent review by Maignien (1966) for information on the early work.
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Eswaran, H., De Coninck, F., Varghese, T. (1990). Role of Plinthite and Related Forms in Soil Degradation. In: Lal, R., Stewart, B.A. (eds) Advances in Soil Science. Advances in Soil Science, vol 11. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3322-0_3
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