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re: Laterite



Robert H wrote a lot of stuff on laterite:

Mostly your post hasn't added anything new to what laterite is.
Laterite is inherently old so there isn't anything inherently new to
add.  But your post had enough inaccuracies to add to the
confusion.  Will that be fair to anyone new on the list not knowing
anything about this old thing?

> have always thought the term was over used to describe
> just about any type of clay.
It is not clay.  This is a misnomer.  Laterite is a soil containing
a mixture of minerals.  Understanding laterite is possible by
understanding what clay is and than realising laterite lacks any of the
properties.
[snip]

> One professor told me the concentrations of unusable
> Fe3+  are so high that the soil is incapable of holding any
> other nutrients  and has no CEC.
I am not sure it is what you are trying to imply but to be clear, there
is no relationship between Fe3+ and CEC.  That laterite has no inherent
CEC supports that it is not a clay.
[snip]

> Laterite soil happens only where there is both tropical
> heat and heavy tropical rains. South America, carribian,
> and tropical asia. All three profesors stated to me that
> the only place in north america where this could occur
> is in Florida
Everyone on this list learned in high school ( or was it junior high )
that just as day to day earthquackes move the earth a little bit, so
have cataclismic events moved whole continents.  In fact it is my
understanding that parts of North America have deposits of
prehistoric laterite from parts of the world that are not part of
current day North America.

> Soils from outside the USA are supposedly banned from import
> into the USA.
This has never been true.  Do you have a reference?

>  "If you would like a response from a whole group of clay minerals
> scientists
Again.  It is not clay.

Christopher Coleman
christopher.coleman at worldnet_att.net