Laterite

Product Description

Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock. 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 areas with laterites was or is between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument building. After ***0 CE construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick and stone. Since the mid****0s trial sections of bituminous-surfaced low-volume roads have used laterite in place of stone as a base course. Thick laterite layers are porous and slightly permeable, so the layers can function as aquifers in rural areas. Locally available laterites are used in an acid solution, followed by precipitation to remove phosphorus and heavy metals at sewage treatment facilities.