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Re: Artist's Clay?
I am not a laterite expert, nor do I know whether or
not art clay is a reasonable substitute for laterite.
But I *do* know that some art clays can cloud water
something fierce! Recently, just for fun, I got a
couple of samples of red art clay from the local art
store. I put some of each in a little jar of water,
squished the clay really well, shook the jars, then
waited for the clay to settle.
Well, one sample did settle some, but the water
remained cloudy for days. The other sample never
really settled at all, and a week later, the water was
still a nice opaque red. I believe that clay
particles (as they relate to soil analysis, anyway)
are defined as those that are less than 2 microns. I
suspect that the cloudiness is due to Brownian motion
of the *extremely* small particles in my samples. I'd
be willing to bet that Dupla laterite, which doesn't
cloud water, has relatively large particle sizes, but
still small enough to be considered a clay.
BTW, I did an iron test on both clays, and they both
tested zippo. So much for the red-color theory.
Rick