Laterite
Rock made of kaolinite, quartz, hematite, goethite
Common
A rusty red soil and rock of iron and aluminium, left by deep weathering in hot, wet lands. Named in 1807 in southern India from the Latin for brick: freshly dug it cuts into blocks, and it built the temple enclosures of Angkor.
Rock
- Kind of rock
- Chemical sedimentary rock
- Also contains
- Gibbsite, Boehmite, Diaspore
- Deposits
- Lateritic deposit
- Metals
- Iron
- How it forms
- Long weathering under high heat and heavy rain alternating with dry seasons leaches the parent rock and leaves iron and aluminium behind (laterisation).
- Uses
- Building blocks, road beds, and ore of aluminium, iron and nickel.
Crystallography
- Habits
- Earthy, Massive
Physical properties
- Luster
- Earthy, Dull
- Colors
- red, reddish brown
- Transparency
- Opaque
Geology
- Origins
- Sedimentary
- Geography
- India, Cambodia (Angkor), New Caledonia, Brazil, Australia
Classification
- Rarity
- Common
- Gem quality
- No
Sources
- Laterite. Wikipedia.
- C. R. Hallsworth, R. W. O’B. Knox, BGS Rock Classification Scheme, Volume 3: Classification of sediments and sedimentary rocks (Research Report RR 99-03). British Geological Survey, 1999.
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