THE CONCEPT OF LATERITE

T. R. PATON AND M. A. J. WILLIAMS

ABSTRACT. Although originally defined as a mottled clay which hardened on

exposure to air, the term laterite has been applied to such a diverse array of geo-
morphic features that it no longer has value as a precise descriptive term. The
persistence of error in modern studies of laterite stems from early confusion over
what laterite is and how it forms. Sedentary laterite is genetically distinct from
detrital laterite. Pedogenetic ironstone is younger than the weathered rock
beneath it. A tropical climate is not essential for laterite to form. The influence
upon weathering of lithology and relief inay offset that of climate, so that relict
laterites are poor paleoclimatic indicators. The value of laterite as a stratigraphic
marker, and its use in denudation chronology, is also suspect. KEY WORDS:
Laterite, Paleoclirnatic indicator, Pedology, Stratigraphic marker, Tropical weath-
ering.

ATERITE and thc soils associated with it been variously interpreted ever since it was
L have been widely interpreted as diag-
nostic of tropical weathering, and when
coined by Buchanan in 1807.2

laterites are found outside the tropics they are
often cited as evidence of former tropical
conditions. Such an oversimplistic correlation
between soil type and climate stems in part
from confusion over what laterite is and how
it forms. This paper reviews the changing
meaning of the term laterite and traces the
sources of ccrtain errors still to be found in
modern studies of laterite. It was prompted
by a growing realization that ambiguous
terminology has impeded progress in this field
of physical geography and soil science, and
was conceived after we had made soil surveys
in parts of tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia.
EARLY DEFINITIONS
Despite recent attempts to define laterite,
the concept remains elusive.‘ The term has
Accepted for publicatiori 1 June 1971.
Mr. Paton is Senior Lecturer and Dr. ‘Trilliums is
Lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences at Mac-
quark Unicersity in North Ryde, New South Wales,
Australia.
K. L,. Pendletoii, “On the Use of the Term
Laterite,” American Soil Science Association Bulletin,
No. 17 (1936), pp. 102-08; J. A. Prescott, “The
Early History of the Use of the Term Laterite,”
Journal of Soil Science, Vol. 5 ( 1954), pp. 1-6; J. A.
Prescott and K. L. Pendleton, Laterite and Lateritic
Soils, Commonwealth Bureau of Soil Science Tech-
riical Coniinunication, No. 47 ( Farnharn Royal,
42
The Wernerian School
Early geologists in India believed in the
Neptunian theory of the earth developed by
Werner. The Neptunists thought that all rocks
were precipitated from a slowly contracting
global ocean.3 The granites, gneisses, and
schists were precipitated first. Transitional
beds of slate, schist, and greywacke were then
laid down as sea level fell. Floetz strata, in-
cluding most of the sedimentary rocks, were
deposited from a yet shallower ocean, and
alluvial deposits formed the fourth and most
recent group of deposits. This theory of rock
~-
England: Coinmonwealth Agricultural Bureaux,
1952), pp. 1-51; S. Sivarajasingham, et al., “Laterite,”
Advances in Agronomy, Vol. 14 (1962), pp. 1-60,
and R. Maignien, Review of Research on Laterites,
Natural Resources Research, No. 4 (Paris: UNESCO,
1966), pp. 11-148.
F. Buchanan’s complete original description of
laterite is on pp. 4 4 0 4 1 of Volume 2 of his three
volume treatise: A Journey from Madras through the
countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar, performed
under the oiders of the Most Noble the Marquis
Wellesley, Governor-General of India, for the express
purpose of investigating the state of agriculture, arts
and commerce; the religions, manners and customs;
the history natural and civil, and antiquities, i n the
Dominions of the Rajah of Mysore, and the countries
acquired b y thc Honourable East India Company, in
the l a i n and former wars, from Tippoo. Sultaun
( London: 1807 ) .
3F. D. Adams, The Birth and Development of
the Geological Sciences (New York: Dover Puhh-
cations, 1954), pp. 1-506.
1972 LATERITE 43

formation was accepted by most European sidered it a geological stratum which differed
scientists until the publication of Lyell’s lithologically from that in Malabar.
Principles of Geology in 1830. Wernerian Buchanan regarded latcrite as a sedimen-
ideas lingered on in India until the 184Os, and tary deposit belonging to the Floetz strata,
the first fifty years of the use of the term which occurred only at a low level, and was
laterite must be seen in this context. Laterite fairly recent. Generally it was a clay with
was considered part of the Floetz strata, that iron oxides, but had considerable lithological
is, a marine formation of either mechanical or variation which affected its physical proper-
chemical origin, which would now be classed ties, such as its ability to set hard on exposure
as late Paleozoic, Mesozoic, or Tertiary sedi- to the air. He excluded the ironstone cappings
ments. Buchanan first defined laterite after of dissected plateaux and the deep red soils
his journey through Mysore, Canara, and produced by weathering of basic rocks. In
Malabar. His description was generalized modern terms, he restricted laterite to the
from all the exposures he saw in the Malabar mottled clays of the uplifted coastal plains.
coastal plain between Ponnani and Angadi- Between 1819 and 1824 Voysey mapped
puram : areas of laterite throughout the east coast of
What I have called indurated clay . . . is one of
peninsular India7 He equated laterite with
the most valuable materials for building. I t is the Floetz rocks, but preferred the term “iron-
diffused in immense masses, without any appear- clay” to latesite. After his recognition of
ance of stratification and is placed over the granite similar material at Bidar at 600 meters on the
that forms the basis of Malayala. It is full of Deccan plateau, no work can be found in
cavities and pores, and contains a very large
quantity of iron in the form of red and yellow which he redefines his attitude to such a high-
ochres. In the mass, while excluded from the air, level occurrence. Between about 1820 and
it is so soft that any iron instrument readily cuts it. 1840 laterite was recognized over almost all
. . . I t very soon after becomes as hard as brick, of southern India, and some of the accounts
and resists the air and water much better than any are models of clarity. Stirling described
bricks that I have seen in India . . . . As it is
usually cut into the form of bricks for building in laterite-covered benches overlying granite in
several of the native dialects, it is called brickstone the Cuttack area of Orissa, and mentioned
. . . . The most proper English name would be “the innumerable pores and amygdaloidal
Laterite, from Lateritis, the appellation that may cavities which it contains, filled with white
be given to it in science. and yellow lithomarge,” and embedded with
Buchanan regarded laterite as a geological “iron ore pebbles and fragments of quartz.”s
stratum overlying the granite and distinct He interpreted such laterite as “an instance of
from the soil, a view made explicit in his de- the Wernerian newest Floetz trap formation
scription of laterite on the moderately di- resting upon the oldest primitive rock and in
sected and uplifted Malabar coastal plain.6 actual junction with it.”9
As a Wernerian, he did not expect to find
laterite at a higher level than the coastal Newbold and Sedimentary Origin
plain, so he saw no laterite when he climbed By 1837 both Benza and Malcolmson had
the Western Ghats to the My sore tablelands. described material identical to laterite formed
Although he described mesas with ironstone
cappings, he did not use the term laterite for edited by C. E. A. W. Oldham and republished by
the Bihar and Orissa Government Printer ( Patna,
such ironstone. During later work in Bengal, 1926).
Buchanan referred to a breccia-like “brick- 7 H . W. Voysey, “Report on the Geology of
stone” with poorly developed hard-setting Hyderabad,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
Vol. 2 (1833), pp. 298-305, 392405; idem, “Ex-
properties when exposed to the air.6 He con- traots from the late Dr. Voysey’s Journals when
attached to the Trigonometrical Survey in South and
‘Buchanan, op. cit., footnote 2, p. 369. Central India,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Buchanan, op. cit., footnote 2, p. 460. Bengal, Vol. 13 (1844), pp. 853-62; and Vol. 19
6 F . Buchanan, An Account of the District of (1850), pp. 190-212, 269-302.
Bhagalpur, first published in 1911, republished by A. Stirling, “An Account, Geographical, Statistical
the Bihar and Orissa Research Society (Patna, India, and Historical of Orissa Proper, or Cuttack,” Asiatic
1939); and idem, Journal kept during the Survey of Researches, Vol. 12 (1825), p. 163.
the District of Shahabad, first published in 1813, Stirling, op. cit., footnote 8, p. 163.
44 T. R. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS
by weathering in situ, but neither concluded
that some laterities were formed in this way.1°
Their papers were soon submerged by the
great volume of work produced by Newbold
between 1842 and 1846.11 He summarized his
results in a general paper on the geology of
southern India in which he concluded that
laterite was a sedimentary formation younger
than the Deccan basalts but older than the
black clays of the area.12 He explained its
occurrence at such differing elevations as the
Malabar coastal plains, the Mysore tablelands,
and the Deccan plateau by postulating that it
formed at the same time as the earth move-
ments that formed the Western Ghats. The
lack of fossils he explained by analogy with
other iron-rich formations poor in fossils, like
the Triassic and Devonian sandstones of
England. Newbold’s concept of laterite re-
mained dominant until 1879, and his influence
persists even in the more recent Indian
work.13 He rejected the notions that laterite
was of volcanic origin and that it had de-
veloped by in situ weathering. Newbold
refuted the volcanic hypothesis on the
grounds that laterite never occurred as a
dyke, and that it showed no signs of forcible
intrusion or a1terati0n.l~ Despite Newbold’s
prestige, both Logan and Alexander later
resurrected the idea of the volcanic origin of
laterite in Singapore and Ceylon respec-
tively.15 Newbold dealt with the possibility
lop. M. Aenza, “Geological Sketch of the Neil-
gheriies,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
Vol. 4 (1835), pp. 413-33; and J. G. Malcolmson,
“On the Fossils of the Eastern Portion of the Great
Basaltic District of India,” Transactions of the Geo-
logical Society of London, Second Series, Vol. 5
(1837), pp. 537-73.
l1 T. J. Newbold in a series of papers in the Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, covering his traverses
across India: “Bellary to Bijapore,” V O ~ 1 . 1 (1842),
p. 929; “Masulipatam to Goa,” Vol. 13 (1844), p.
987.
l 2 T. J. Newbold, “Summary of the Geology of
Southern India,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
Vol. 8 (1844), pp. 138-71, 213-70.
D. N. Wadia, T h e Geology of India, second
edition (London: Macmillan, 1953), chapter twenty-
three.
14Newbold, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 237.
l5 J. R. Logan, “On the Local and Relative Geology
of Singapore including Notices of Sumatra, the Malay
Peninsula etc.,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, Vol. 16 ( 1847), pp. 521-679; idem, “Notices
of the Geology of the Straits of Singapore,” Quarterly
March
of in situ weathering at greater length. He
stated that many rock fragments contained in
laterite could not have been residual from
weathering of the underlying rock; that,
where laterite overlies limestone, it contains
no lime; and in places laterite contains veins
of manganese, but overlies basalt with no
detectable manganese. He refuted the ex-
amples of apparent in situ weathering raised
by Benza and Malcolmson as follows:16
. . . where the rain falls heaviest, those granitic,
hypogene and trappean rocks, which contain most
iron weather into ferruginous and coloured clay;
that sometimes, lithologically speaking, resemble
laterite; and when that rock is near, have the
appearance of passing into it. I have also observed
large beds of gneiss and hornblende schist, of an
impure oxide of iron assume a cellular and pisiform
aspect; but such must not be mistaken for the true
laterite nor yet the beds of re-aggregated gravel
derived from laterite.
Newbold never explained how such a differ-
entiation is to be made, and to this day it is
often difficult to distinguish sedentary from
detrital laterite by field inspection 0n1y.l~
As a lithologic unit, Newbold regarded
laterite as varying a great deal in its:l*
. . . structure and composition but generally speak-
ing, it presents a reddish brown, or brick-coloured,
tubular and cellular clay, more or less indurated,
passing on the one hand into a hard compact
jaspideous rock, and on the other into loosely ag-
gregated grits and sandstones . . . and into red
sectile clays, red and yellow ochre and white
porcelain earth, plumb-blue, red, purplish, and
variegated lithomarges. Sometimes it presents the
character of a conglomerate containing fragments
of quartz, the plutonic, hypogene and sandstone
rocks, and nodules of iron ore derived from them
all imbedded into a ferruginous clay. The cavities
are both vesicular, tubular and sinuous; sometimes
empty, but, in the lower portions of the rock, nsu-
Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 7
( 1851), p. 710; and H. F. Alexander, “On the Origin
of Cabook, or the Laterite of Ceylon,” Transactions
of the Edinburgh Geological Society, Vol. 2 (1871),
p. 113.
l6 Newbold, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 238.
l7 J. Hays, “Land Surfaces and Laterites in the
North of the Northern Territory,” in J . N. Jennings
and J. A. Mabbutt, eds., Landform Studies from
Australia and New Guinea (Canberra, Australia:
A.N.U. Press, 1967), p. 203; and M. A. J. Williams,
“Geology of the Adelaide-Alligator Area,” in R. Story,
et al., Lands of the Adelaide-Alligator Area, Northern
Territory, Land Research Series No. 25 (Melbourne:
C.S.I.R.O., Australia, 1969), pp. M-66.
l8 Newbold, op. cit., footnote 12, p. 231.
1972 LATERITE
ally filled, or partially filled with earths and clays
above-mentioned, or a siliceous and argillaceous
dust often stained by oxide of iron. A species of
black bole, carbonised wood, and carbonate of
lime, sometimes occur, but rarely, in these cavities.
Minute crystals of quartz not uncommonly line the
interior.
The period between Newbold’s last paper
in 1846 and the publication of Medlicott and
Blandfords Geology of India in 1879 was a
time of great survey activity in India and
elsewhere.19 Material similar to the Indian
laterite was recognized by Bain in South
Africa, by Logan in Singapore, and by Alex-
ander in Ceylon.zo This work exposed the
inconsistencies of Newbold’s approach, and
as early as 1854 Oldham suggested that the
term laterite needed to be more strictly de-
fined as “it has been used as applying to rocks
so altogether distinct both in character and
age, that it is useless as a definitive term, and
its ariginal application to a clay has been
quite forgotten.”21 His suggestion has been
repeated from time to time ever since. In the
same paper Oldham suggested that laterite
was an iron tufa, a view revived over seventy
years later by Woolnough.z2
Sedentary and Detrital Laterite
One chapter in the Geology of India was
devoted to “Laterite or Iron Clay and Litho-
marge.” The book represented a consensus
of forty years’ work rather than a critical
evaluation of the evidence, but was important
because it represented the official views of
the Geological Survey of India, and was the
first publication on laterite to be given inter-
national circulation. Medlicott and Blandford
described laterite as:23
IsH. B. Medlicott and W. T. Blandford, A Manual
of the Geology of India (Calcutta: Government Press,
l869), Vol. 1, pp. 348-70.
20A. G. Bain, “Geology of Southern Africa,”
Transactions of the Geological Society of London,
Vol. 7 (1852), pp. 175-92; Logan (1847), op. cit.,
footnote 15; and Alexander, op. cit., footnote 15.
‘IT. Oldham, “Notes upon the Geology of the
Rajmahal Hills,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, Vol. 23 (1854), p. 263.
*’W. G. Woolnough, Presidential Address, “Part
1, The Chemical Criteria of Peneplanotion; Part 2,
The Duricrust of Australia,” Proceedings of the Royal
Society of New South Wales, Vol. 81 (1927), pp.
1-53.
23 Medlicott and Blandford, op. cit., footnote 19,
p. 348.
4s
. . . porous argillaceous rock, much impregnated
with iron peroxide, which is irregularly distributed
throughout the mass, some forms of the rock con-
taining as much as from 25-35 per cent of metallic
iron. This iron exists either entirely i n the state of
hydrated peroxide (limonite) or else partly as
hydrated and partly as anhydrous peroxide. The
surface of laterite after exposure is usually covered
with a hrown or blackish-brown crust of limonite
but the rock, when freshly broken is mottled with
various tints of brown, red and yellow, and a
considerable proportion, sometimes consists of
white . . . . The rock when first quarried is so
soft, that it can easily be cut out with a pick . . .
but it hardens greatly on exposure . . . . Laterite
is never an original forin of igneous rock; it is in all
cases either produced by the alteration of othei
rocks, sometimes igneous, sometimes sedimentary
or metamorphic, or else it is of detrital origin.
The admission of the alteration of under-
lying rocks as a factor in the production of
laterite in certain situations was due largely
to Bruce-Foote, who suggested that the term
iron-clay be confined to high-level laterite
formed by weathering in sit^.^^ In effect,
Medlicott and Blandford distinguished high-
level from low-level laterites. They thought
that the in situ formation of laterite, if it oc-
curred at all, was associated with the high-
level type, whereas low-level laterites were
always detrital. On a regional basis, the
high-level laterites were on the Deccan
plateau and the Mysore tablelands, and the
low-level laterites were on the coastal plains
below the Ghats. On a more local scale, the
material capping residuals (high-level or
primary laterite ) was distinguished from the
recemen ted ironstone accumulations along the
lower hillslopes derived from the erosion of
the high-level caprock. The term low-level or
secondary laterite was applied both to the
valleyside ironstones and to the materials of
the uplifted coastal plains, and confusion has
reigned ever since. According to Medlicott
and Blandford, low-level laterite often con-
tains grains of sand, small rolled fragments of
quartz, and occasional larger pebbles. I t is
less homogeneous in structure than the high-
level form, and grades imperceptibly into
ferruginous sandy clay or gravel. It usually
contains considerable quantities of lateritic
gravel.
24R. Bruce-Foote, “Geology of Madras and North
Arcot District,” Memoir of the Geological Survey of
India, Val. 10 (1882); idem, “Geology of South
Mahratta,” ibid., Vol. 12 ( 1876).
46 T. R. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS March

ance, were advanced in F. von Richthofen’s

COASTAL WESTERN M O R E TABLELAND
Fuhrer fur Forschungsreisende, published in
PLAIN GHATS 1886. Von Richthofen suggested that laterite
was the zonal soil of the wet tropics; that
W E
high-level laterites were Tertiary in age; that
“red beds” were formed from eroded laterite;
and that, wherever laterite occurs outside the
tropics, the climate must once have been

Von Richthofen argued that, just as resid-

ual loams were characteristic of temperate
mountains and loess of the semiarid temper-
ate and tropical steppes, so laterite was
peculiar to the rainy tropics.27 Walther im-
BEFORE UPLIFT OF WESTERN GHATS
mediately amplified this suggestion, conclud-
I Newbold 1 ing that under the influence of a tropical
climate an iron oxide-rich red earth was
formed, and that laterite was associated with
the weathering products of reddened, altered
HIGH LEVEL AND PRIMART UTERITE rock.28 The views of von Richthofen and
FORMED BY WEATHERING IN SITU
I
Walther on laterite gained fresh impetus from
L O W LEVEL M( SECONDARY LATERITE
FORMED BY DEPOSITION
the growth of the Russian school of pedology
Blondford founded by Dokuchaev.29 According to
Sibirtzev and Glinka, climate and vegetation
controlled the distribution of the major or
zonal soils, and laterite was readily adopted
as the zonal soil of the tropics.”” A corollary
NOT REGARDED AS TRUE LATERITE
to this view is that, where relict laterites oc-
cur, the climate must have been hot and at
least seasonally wet during the stage of
laterite formation.“l Such a conclusion seems
FIG. 1. The changing definition of laterite in
India.
26 F. F. von Richthofen, Fuhrer fur Forschungsrei-
sende (1886), pp. 455-59.
Medlicott and Blandford admitted that 27Von Richthofen, op. cit., footnote 26, p. 455.
laterite could be formed by weathering, but 28 J. Walther, “Bericht iiber die Resultate einer

also regarded iron-cemented colluvium as Reise nach Ostindien im Winter 1888/89,” Verhandl-
laterite. Although they considered that cer- zingen der Gesellschaft f u r Erdkunde, Vol. 16
pp. 318-28.
tain materials, regarded as a geological (1889), 2Q According to the soil zonalists, the passive factors
stratum by earlier workers, could in fact be of soil formation (parent materials, relief, and drain-
due to weathering, they confused both con- age) were impontant in the early stages of soil
cepts by failing to differentiate clearly formation, but in the long run their influence was
between them. Oldham republished their outweighed by that of the active factors (climate
account in imamended $arm in 1893, and the and J.organisms, especially vegetation).
S. Joffe discusses the work of V. V. Dokuchaev,
confusion between allochthonous and autoch- N. M. Sibirtzev, and K. D. Glinka, in chapter two
thonous forms of laterite persists in the latest of the second edition of Pedology (New Brunswick.
edition of the Geology of India (Fig. l).2fi Pedology Publications, 1949).
R 1 The notion that laterite is diagnostic of a par-
THE ZONAL CONCEPT ticular climate occurs in the careful reviews of H.
B. S. Cooke, “Observations Relating to Quaternary
Four significant ideas relating to laterite, Environments in East and Southern Africa,” Bulletin
which have since gained widespread accept- of the Geological Society of South Africa, Annexure
to Vol. 60 (1958), pp. 1-73, and R. F. Flint,
2z Medlicott and Blandford, op. cit., footnote 19, “Pleistocene Climates in Eastern and Southern
second edition edited by T. Oldham (1892); and Africa,” Geological Society of America Bulletin, Vol
Wadia, op. cit., footnote 13. 70 (1959), pp. 343-74.
1972 LATERITE
reasonable provided laterite is nowhere form-
ing outside the tropics, but recent work by
Goldschmidt in Norway and Crompton in
Britain has shown that a tropical climate is
not essential to laterite formation.“2
THE GEOCHEMISTS
Bauer’s analyses of laterite in the Seychelles
mark a turning point in the study of laterite.
Using newly developed techniques of silicate
analysis and thin section analysis to determine
the mineral composition of varied rocks,
Bauer suggested that the essential character-
istic of laterite on both acid and basic rocks
was the presence of free aluminum oxides.33
He considered only those laterites formed by
weathering of the bedrock in situ, which al-
together excluded Buchanan’s original lat-
erite. Bauer concluded that laterite formation
was not as dependent on the hot, damp, tropi-
cal conditions as had formerly been thought,
for it can also take place in temperate areas
on rocks such as basalt, where the endproduct
is mainly iron oxide with some alumina. To
Bauer the essential problem was why the ulti-
mate weathering products were sometimes
kaolin and sometimes iron and aluminum
oxides. Most subsequent workers have un-
fortunately neglected this guideline for future
research, but have stressed the free aluminum
oxide content of laterite.34
Bauer’s work was rapidly developed by
geologists anxious to exploit the alumina de-
posits of India. Detailed chemical work by
H. and F. J. Worth confirmed that the high-
level laterite was rich in aluminum and iron
32 V. M. Goldschmidt, “The Formation of Laterite
as a Weathering Product of Labradorite Rock,”
(translated by Commonwealth Bureau of Soil
Science) Festskrift ti1 H . SZrlie (Oslo, 1928), pp.
21-24; and E. Crompton, “The Significance of the
Weathering/Leaching Ratio in the Differentiation of
Major Soil Groups with Particular Reference to Some
Very Strongly Leached Brown Earths on the Hills of
Britain,” Proceedings of the Seventh International
Congress of Soil Science, Madison, Vol. 5 (1960),
pp. 406-12.
33 M. Bauer, “Beitrage zur Geologie der Seyschellen
insbesmdere zur Kenntnis des Laterits,” Neues Jahr-
buch f u r Mineralogie, Vol. 2 (1898), pp. 163-219.
34F. J. Martin and H. C . Doyne, Soil Survey of
Sierra Leone ( Freetown, Sierra Leone: Department
of Agriculture, 1932) affords an example of the
pitfalls of relying on one criterion (the silica/alumina
ratio) for defining laterite.
47
oxides in contrast to the kaolin- and quartz-
rich low-Ievel laterite.35 H. Worth later
analyzed the weathering products of a
dolerite from Staffordshire and concluded
that, though kaolinite was the weathering
product in temperate areas, aluminum and
iron oxides were produced in the tropics.36
He ignored the more considered of Bauer’s
conclusions, but accepted the erroneous one.
Holland used certain earlier analyses of the
Worths to expound two novel ideas: that kao-
lins reflected hydrothermal alteration, not
temperate weathering; and that the unique
character of laterite formation in the tropics
was caused by microorganisms which could
only flourish under tropical condition^.^^ He
reached this conclusion because he felt that
the slight temperature difference between
temperate and tropical regions was insuffi-
cient to cause such a totally distinct product.
Fermor managed to combine the morpho-
logical approach of Medlicott and Blandford
with the chemical approach of the Worths,
but had to abandon alumina as an essential
characteristic of laterite (Fig. 2) .38 Fermor’s
morphological/chemical classification was ac-
cepted and used by the agricultural chemists
Martin and Doyne, working in West Africa in
the 1 9 2 0 ~They
~ ~ accepted the zonal concept
of soil development and classified soils ac-
cording to the composition of the clay frac-
tion. Martin and Doyne assumed that, within
the tropics, laterization was superimposed
upon kaolinization, which they considered the
dominant worldwide process of rock weather-
3i Martin and Doyne, op. cit., footnote 34; idem,
“I. Laterite and Lateritic Soils in Sierra Leone,”
Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 17 (1927), pp.
530-47; and idem, “11. Laterite and Lateritic Soils in
Sierra Leone,” Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol.
20 (1930), pp. 135-43.
36 H. Worth, “Weahered Dolerite of Rowley Regis
(South Staffordshire) compared with the laterite of
the Wesiern Ghats near Bombay,” Geological Maga-
zine, Decade 5, Vol. 2 (1905), p. 21.
37 T. H. Holland, “On the Constitution, Origin and
Dehydration of Laterite,” Geological Magazine,
Decade 4, Vol. 10 (1903), p. 59; and H. and F. J.
Worth, “The Composition of Indian Laterites,”
Geological Magazine, Decade 4, Vol. 10 (19Q3),
p. 154.
38L. L. Fermor, “What is Laterite?’ Geological
Magazine, Decade 5, Vol. 8 (1911), pp. 454-62,
507-16, and 559-66.
39 Martin and Doyne (1927 and 1930), op. cit.,
footnote 35.
48 T. 13. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS March

SIC mcks-
Chemicolly-formed rocks

II

Lateritic
rocks.

25- 50 % L C

Lateritic
11thom arge
Stlhceous
lateri~ land

50-90% L C

Lithomorgic
~~
lateritoids)
1)
~ ~
True Laterites
( I d
Lateritoids)
90-100% L C
"
Varieties
I
Transported rocks
(mechanically famed ).

VI
Oetritol
laterites
Ibteritite)
40-100XLC
VII
Soils and
Lateritic
earths
c 4 0 % L.C

and day Laterite I

schist, etc
Loteritic soil

Ouortzose
Loteritic
Puartzose
laterite I
I( %ERITE
I

gneisses, 1so met imes cloys,solls

mico-schtsts,
etc
, I
Lithomorge
Lateritic soil
lithomorgic
as w e l l )
OETRITAL
>LATERITE
sands,
earths, etc.
(Lateritite) I Laterittc,if
Any rocksthat ~$ 25-40 %LC.)
yield iron
(monganese
and aluminium),
S?
-8 ' Siliceous
Lake laterites
1 LAKE
~ LATERITE
to meteoric 5
waters 15% '
Mica-rhlsts I AA Ouortzites and schists become Quortzose
quartzites
1
1 3:
PE 1
mixed w i t h Fe and Mn oxides,
and pass into lateritoid'breccias loteritoids
etc J
," !! and these mto I11

FIG. 2. Fernier's classitication of laterite.

ing. Recmse iron oxides were highly mobile, clay fraction persisted in tropical pedology
Martin and Doyne adopted the free alumina for over twenty years, and did little to in-
content as their criterion for laterite. A soil crease understanding of soil forming proc-
with a silica/ahxmina ratio below 1.33 was a c'ssc~s. The geologist Scrivenor wrote that:-'2
laterite; bctween 1.33 and 2 . 0 it was lateritic; . . . Soil chemists are establishing a definite type
and above 2.00 it was non-lateritic. The Sod of 'lateritic soil' based on the silica/alumina ratio
Survey of Sierra Leone shows the problems in clay fractions. Agronomists have adopted
that arose from this approach. A sandy laterite and cradled it with their own offspring
granite-derived soil with a melanized topsoil 'podzol.' Unless we want to retain the term in
Buchanan's original utilitarian sense I think we
iifteen centimeters thick above a yellow gritty iiiight gracefully acquiesce.
subsoil with abundant granite fragments had
a silica/alumina ratio in the top thirty centi- Scrivenor implied that the term "laterite" had
meters between 1.33 and 2.00, and a clay become so abused as to be no l'onger useful,
content of nine percent. Martin and Doyne and from about 1930 onward geologists con-
classed this soil as lateritic, although they centralted on problems of bauxite genesis and
realized that in appearance it had nothing in laterite was relegated to' the pedologists.
common with lateritic gravels in other parts Outstanding among those who challenged
of Sierra Leone.40 I f the use of a single cri- the zonal concept of soil development was Sir
terion, caused soil classification problems in John Harrison, who worked in British Guiana
Sierra I,eone, the difficulties increased when as a government chemist for over thirty years.
clays with low silica/alumina ratios werc H e conducted detailed mineralogical studies
rcmgnized in temperate areas4' of weathering processes using combined
The exact chemical approach oi 5,lurtin and chemical and optical analyses of samples
Doyne contrasts with their inadequate fielc taken' from fresh rock and across the weather-
descriptions of soils, but their ideas as to the
importance of the silica/alumina ratio of the *p J. €3. Scrivenor discussed the w e of the word
laterite in a series of letters in the Geological
Martin niid l)oyne, op. cit., footnote 34.
40 Mugmine, Vol. 6 (1909), pp. 431 and 574; Vol. 7
Coldschmidt, op. cit., footnote 32, and Croinp-
41 (1910), pp. 139 and 335; and in chapter nine of
ton, op. cit., footnote 3 2 . The Geology of MnlazJu ( l.onclon, 1931 ).
1972 LATERITE
ing boundary.43 Harrison concluded that
aluminum and iron oxides developed from
weathered basic rocks, but that kaolinite
formed from weathered granite. He described
the aluminum and iron oxides as primary
laterite, and emphasized that rock type de-
termines the nature of the weathering prod-
ucts. Harrison also thought that primary
laterite was resilicified to kaolinite between
the weathering front and the surface. Milne
subsequently disproved the third conclusion,
for Harrison had not realized that the surface
was a distinct layer of material genetically
unrelated to that beneath it.44 In view of
Harrison’s preoccupation with process, it is
ironic that the main criticism of his work
concerned terminology and in particular his
definition of laterite as:45
. .
. The residual products derived by the kata-
niorphism of more or less basic rocks in situ and
characterised by the occurrence in, or upon, them,
of concretionary masses varying in composition
from highly ferruginous to highly aluminous and
by the presence in certain parts of them of
secondary silicates in quantity. When used in this
sense, laterite can accurately be defined as the
katamorphic product of igneous or of meta-
morphic rocks in which by chemical decomposition
various silicates contained in them have been
changed into hydrated oxides of aluminium and
iron, and secondary hydrated aluminium silicates,
with, in places, original and ( o r ) secondary silica.
Harrison’s laterite denotes the products of
the weathering of basic rocks in situ; under
similar equatorial conditions granite gives rise
to kaolin clays. These concepts were vigor-
ously developed by Scrivenor, who argued
that, if free aluminum oxides are the product
of weathering under tropical conditions, then
they should occur in Malaya. In fact, the
main weathering product in Malaya was kao-
lin clay, and free aluminum oxides were
notably Scrivenor believed that the
J. B. Harrison, “The Residual Earths of British
Guiana commonly termed ‘Laterite’,” Geological
Magazine, Decade 5, Vol. 7 (1910), pp. 439-52;
idem, The Katamorphism of Igneous Rocks under
Humid Tropical Conditions, edited by F. Hardy
( Harpenden, England: Imperial Bureau of Soil
Science, 1933), pp. 1-79.
44G.Milne, A Report an a Journey to Parts of the
West Indies and the United States for the Study of
Soils, East Africa Agricultural Research Station,
Amani ( Dar-es-Salaam: Government Printer, 1938).
45 Harrison, op. cit., footnote 43, p. 10.
4G Scrivenor, op. cit., footnote 42.
49
lack of free aluminum oxides was due to the
virtual absence of basalts from Malaya, and
pointed out that free aluminum oxides were
among the weathering products of basalts in
India. However, the material on the Malacca
coastal plains lacked free aluminum oxides,
although it was closely akin to Buchanan’s
typc laterite, and had long been used as build-
ing stone by the Portuguese. Scrivenor natu-
rally concluded that the definition currently
given to laterite by Indian geologists did not
accord with Buchanan’s original use of the
term. Such pointed criticism provoked a sharp
reaction from certain geologists in India.47
Fox was sent to reinvestigate Buchanan’s type
area, and concluded that there was no chemi-
cal resemblance between Buchanan’s laterite,
which was similar to that of Malacca, and the
primary laterites derived from the Deccan
basalt^.^^ He also showed that Bauer’s original
analyses of Seychelles material did not dis-
tinguish between combined and free silica,
and that the Seychelles granites weathered to
kaolin clays and not to free aluminum
oxides.4n Although his results supported those
of Harrison and of Scrivenlor on the influence
of lithology on weathering, Fox interpreted
the data as a maturity sequence, with
Buchanan’s low-level kaolinitic clay as juve-
nile and the high-level Deccan laterite with
free aluminum oxides as mature. That such
an explanation was acceptable to pedologists
is evident from the arguments which Milnc
used against Harrison’s theory of differential
weathering:
My own view would be to regard lateritization a?
a perfectly general process under humid climates.
Outside the tropics its rate of progress is usually
slow because periods of high enough temperature
coinciding with high rainfall, occupy only a small
part of the year. Within the tropics it proceeds
normally, in proportion to the effective through-
47 T. Crook replying to Scrivenolr in the Geological
Magazine, Vol. 6 (1909), p. 525; and Vol. 7 (1910),
p. 233; and J. W. Evans replying to Scrivenor,
Geological Magazine, Vol. 7 (1910), pp. 189 and
381.
48 C. S. Fox, “Buchanan’s Laterite of Malabar and
Kanara,” Records of the Geological Survey of India,
No. 69 (1936), pp. 389-422.
4QFox, op. cit., footnote 48. After examining the
type area for laterite at Malabar, Fox visited the
Seychelles to collect samples of the material Bauer
had described as laterite. See Bauer, op. cit., foot-
note 33.
Milne, op. cit., footnote 44, p. 62.
50 T. R. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS
put of leaching water. On some type of rock it
rapidly produced its end-product, primary laterite
a5 defined by Harrison. On others, for example,
those that have a high content of combined silica
01 of finely divided free silica, a greater efficiency
of leaching i y riecesaary for the same rate of prog-
res\ or alternatively at lower leaching efficiencies
the end stage is reached inore slowly. It seems
simpler to suppose that the kaolinitic clay of such
profiles as Mazarumi is an intermediate stage of a
imiversal process, con esponding to immaturity of
development, than that it is the end stage of a
different process peculiar to gianitic rocks.
Arguing thus, Milne c d d reconcile Harri-
son’s results with the zonal concept of soil
development and could still restrict laterite
to the tropics. However, in 1928 Goldschmidt
showed that the fine-grained reddish-brown
weathering produclt of labradorite in the
mountains of southern Norway oontained free
sesquioxides and had a silica/alumina ratio of
0.43. He concluded that:51
Lateiitr hitherto presumed to be exclusively a
tropical weathering product can he formed iindei
present Norwegian high-mountain cliniatic con-
ditions. It follows that great care should be
exercised in drawing any conclusions regarding
climatic conditions of older geological periods on
the basis of the existence of lateritic weathering
prodiicts. Laterite can he formed even under semi-
arctic condition\ at the cxpense of ba\ic plagioclase
felspars
Four years later Robinson stressed the
similarity between the East African red loams
and certain reddish-brown sails on very steep
slopes in North Wales.52 Crompton has
demonstrated more recently that oxide-rich
materials were forming on basic to intennedi-
ate lavas and volcanic ash on extremely steep
slopes under high rainfall in the English Lake
District.53 The suggestion that material
similar to laterite can form well outside the
tropics in cold wet areas does not accord with
accepted concepts about zonal soils, and has
been largely ignored.
LATERITE AND GEOMORPHOLOGY
Voii Richthofen was among the first to
suggest a Tertiary age for high-level lateritrs,
and the use of laterite as a geologic ciatum
with which to reconstruct the Crnozoic
31 Colclscliiiritlt, op. cit., footnote 32, p. 23.
,-32 <;. W. Robinson, Soils: Their Origin, Constitution
und Classification ( Loridon: Murby, 1932 ), pp. 1-
573.
,-’:+Chrnpton, op. cit., footnote 32.
March
history of parts of Africa and Australia per-
sists to this day.54 Woolnough described a
duricrust or hard capping covering extensive
areas of losw relief in inland Australia, and
regarded it as diagnostic of the Davisian
peneplain stage.!j5 Following Maclaren, the
capping was assumed to be a chemical precip-
itate resulting from the capillary rise from a
deep water table of solutions rich in carbon-
ate, silica, or sesquioxides.56 A strongly sea-
sonal climate was pwtulated, with an overall
movement in solution do8wnwardsduring the
wet seas’on,and upwards by capillarity during
the dry season, when iron. and aluminum
oxides were precipitated at the surface. Mac-
laren’s idea that laterite was formed by the
capillary rise of sesquioxide-rich solutions
during ‘the dry season became widely ac-
cepted by workers in west and southern
Africa.57 The currently widespread idea that
a strongly seasonal monsoonal or savanna
climate is necessary for laterization stems
from this earlier work.58
The ideas of peneplanation and capillary
rise were developed to their greatest extent
in Australia. Simpson regarded laterite as an
efflorescence occurring on well defined pene-
plains and resulting from an alternation of
climate.59 Jensen elaborated on Simpson’s
:‘*L. C. King, Morphology of the Earth (Edin-
burgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1962), pp. 1-699; J. A.
Mabbutt, “The Weathered Land Surface in Central
Australia,” Zeitsclzrift f u r Geomorphologie, Vol. 9,
pp. 82-114; and Hays, op. cit., footnote 17.
,75 Woolnough, op. cit., footnote 22.
(iGM. Maclaren, “On the Origin of Certain
Laterites,” Geological Magazine, Decade 5, Vol. 4
(1906), pp. 536-47.
57 F. P. Mennell, “Notes on Rhodesian Laterite,”
Geological Magazine, Decade 5, Vol. 6 ( 1909), pp.
350-52; H. Arsandaux, “Contribution B I’Ctude du
latbrite,” Comptes Rendus de l‘dcudbrnie de Science
de Paris, Vol. 149 ( 1909), pp. 682-85, 1082-84; and
A. Lacroix, “Les Laterites de la GuinCe et les Produits
d’altCrations qui leurs sont associks,” Nouve1Ze.v
Archives du Mtrset~m,5“ Serie, Vol. 5 (1914), pp.
255-355.
58 H. Scaetta, “Observations sur I’origine et la
constitution des sols de I’Afrique Occidentale Fran-
caise,” Annales Agronomiques, Vol. 19 ( 1940), pp.
101-26; H. Maignien Le Cuirassement des Sols en
G u i d e , Afrique Occidentale ( Strasbourg: Memoires
clu Service de la Carte GCologique d’Alsace et de
Lorraine, No. 16, 1958), pp. 1-239.
59E. S . Simpson, “Notes on Laterite in Western
Australia,” Geological Magazine, Decade 5, Vol. 9
(1912), pp. 399-406.
1972 LATERITE
work by stating that fluctuations of ground
water level of u p to twenty meters occur
between wet and dry seasons and that:60
In the dry season the ascending capillary water
brings to the surface silica and iron and certain
amounts of lime and magnesia. The lime and mag-
nesia are leached away by the acidity of the
ground water in the wet season - the rich vegeta-
tion acidifying the surface water. The proportion
of bauxite to silica in the chemically penetrated
surface beds depends chiefly on the nature of the
strata below.
Woolnough developed these ideas to the ulti-
mate in a paper on “The Chemical Criteria of
Peneplanation” in which he argued that:61
When peneplanation is forced to its extreme limits,
chemical action completely dominates ooer me-
chanical processes of corrasion. . . . One essential
criterion of a high degree of perfection of pene-
planation is that the rocks of the area show evi-
dence of very deep and very complete chemical
alteration b y meteoric waters. . . . If the residual
material consists entirely of the most insoluble
products of rock weathering a uniformly moist
climate may be postulated during the last stages
of peneplanation. . . , If on the other hand, there
is a crust of concretionary amorphous material,
chiefly alumina, iron oxide or amorphous silica,
resting upon a substratum of insoluble residual
constituents, the final stages of peneplanation took
place under climatic conditions marked by sharply
defined alternations of saturation and desiccation.
H e averred that the duricrust refleoted bed-
rock lithology in being either iron-rich (ferri-
Crete), calcareous (calcrete), or siliceous
( silcrete ) . H e believed the duricrust could
be used as a geologic datum and suggested
that its age was Miocene.
About the time Woolnough was discussing
the duricrust, Walther publicized the so-
called “laterite profile” initially recognized by
Simpson and by Jutson.G’ From the surface
H. I. Jensen, et al., “Geological Report on the
Country between Pine Creek and Tanami. Recon-
naissance of Arnhem Land. Observations on Country
between Pine Creek and Newcastle Waters,” Bulletin
of the Northern Territory of Australia, No. 14 (1915),
p. 15.
Woolnough, op. cit., footnote 22, p. 17.
62 J. Walther, “Laterit in West Australien,”
Zeitschrift der Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft,
Vol. 67 B (1915), pp. 113-40; idem, “Das geologische
Alter und die Bildung des Laterits,” Petermanns
Geographische Mitteilungen, Vol. 62 (1916), pp.
1-7, 46-53; Simpson, op. cit., footnote 59; and J. T.
Jutson, “-4n outline of the physiographical geology
of Western Australia,” Bulletin of the Western Aus-
tralia Geological Suruey, No. 61 (1914), p. 194.
Sl
downwards, Walther described a ferruginous
crust, a mottled zone, and a pallid zone. New-
bold had described similar features in 1842.6”
The idea of a “standard lateritic profile” was
reiterated by Whitehouse in 1940.64 Recent
workers in the Northern Territory of Australia
have used this concept when defining sepa-
rate erosion surfaces or when correlating iso-
lated laterite-capped remnants. However, it
is still unclear whether the ferruginous,
mottled, and pallid zones are part of a single,
monogenetic weathering profile, or whether
the ferruginous zone is in fact detrital and so,
perhaps, much younger than the iron-depleted
rock beneath.G5
Current work in Australia has shown that
the relationship between the various types of
duricrust is complex.66 Langford-Smith and
Dury argued that the formation of silcrete is
unrelated to the formation of laterite.Gi
Mulcahy demonstrated that height correla-
tions of ironstone-capped mesas are unreli-
able.GRDury and Langford-Smith suggested
that Australian “peneplains” are in fact pedi-
plains developed under semiarid conditions,
so that the duricrust may postdate the surface
it rests upon.6D McFarlane’s recent study of
laterite on the Buganda Surface near Kampala
confirms the doubts now arising over too
63 Newbold (1842), op. cit., footnote 11.
c4F. W. Whitehouse, “Studies in the Late
Geological History of Queensland,” University of
Queensland Occasional Papers in Geology, Vol. 2,
No. 1 (1940), pp. 2-22.
65 Hays, op. cit., footnote 17; Williams, op. cit.,
footnote 17.
66 C. G. Stephens, “Laterite and Silcrete in Ails-
tralia: A Study of the Genetic Relationships of
Laterite and Silcrete and their companion Materials,
and their collective Significance in the Formation of
the Weathered Mantle, Soils, Relief and Drainage of
the Australian Continent,” Geoderma, Vol. 5 ( 1971 ),
pp. 5-52.
G7T. Langford-Smith and G. H. Dury, “Distri-
bution, Character, and Attitude of the Duricrust in
the Northwest of New South Wales and the Adjacent
Areas of Queensland,” American Journal of Science,
Vol. 263 (1965), pp. 170-90.
(is M. J. Mulcahy, “Laterite Residuals and Sand-
plains,” Australian Journal of Science, Vol. 27
(1964), pp. 54-55; idem, “Landscapes, Laterites and
Soils in Southwestern Australia,” in Jennings and
Mabbutt, op. cit., footnote 17, pp. 211-30.
6 9 G . H. Dury and T. Langford-Smith, “The Use
of the Term Peneplain in Descriptions of Australian
Landscapes,” Australian Journd of Science, Vol. 27
(1964), pp. 171-75.
52 ‘r. 13. PATON AND
facile a correlation between laterite and
erosion surfaces, for she concluded that “the
so-called Buganda Surface is neither a
planation surface nor a single surface of high
relief,” and much of the latwite on it is very
young.“’
Harrassowity, following Jutson, invoked
capillarity as the means b y which ironstone/
alumina crusts formed in the tropical savanna
7ones. Hc considered that laterite was weath-
r w d soil, dependent upon a tropical climate,
and that the bonndary between tropics and
subtropics marked the limit of active laterite
fonnation.’l He therefore thought relict
latcrite a useful indicator of past climates.
Harrassowitz described oxidc-rich weathering
materials as nlZitP and kaolinite-rich materials
as &zl/ite. Although he never visited the
tropics, hi$ account of laterite was considered
anthorit a t’1ve.
Campbell was among the first to reject
capillarity as the means by which laterite
forms, arid suggested that the seasonal rise
of the water table carried iron in solution to
the surface.‘2 High-level laterite he inter-
preted as fossilized by the uplift of formerly
low-level laterite. Keen’s field experiments at
Rolthamstt~d in 1926 showed that capillary
rise was negligible in many soils, and soon the
idca of a cellular structure of soil voids re-
placed that of soils penetrated by continuous
vertical capillary
LATERITE AND PEDOLOGY
There is a clcar distinction bctween the
development of soil horizons in transported,
previously weathered rock material, and thc
initial weathering of that rock before it is
7” hf. J. Xlck’arlane, “Latciitization arid landscape
deb elopinen t in Kpagwe, lTganda,” Quarterly Journal
of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 126 ( 1971),
p. 508.
7 1 H. FIarrassowib, “Roden der tropi\chr
fh$olien. I ,aterit und allitischer ( lateritischer ) Rot
l c , l i n , ” 111 E. Bl,mck, liuiitlhicc h dai Roderilehre ( R c i .
lin, 1030), Vol. 3, pp. 387-436.
iL J . M. Campbell, “The Origin of L,a+-ritc,”
Truti~ac‘tionsof the. Institute of Mzniikg mid Afetal-
/riigy, i’ol. 19 ( 1910), pp. 332-57, ancl idem,
“Iateiite~, its Oiigin, Structure nntl hlinerals,”
R4ineraZog:‘cal MagazznP, Vol 17 ( 1917), pp. 67-77,
120-28, 171-79, and 220-29.
i7 13 A. Keen, “Soil Phyws. It\ S~opt‘ in Agri~ul-
tiirc,” Jouiiiul of thc Roya/ Sorzcty of Art& (1942),
pp. 546-57.
M. A. J. WILLIAMS March
eroded to form alluvium or colluvium. The
distinction is less clear when u7c try to sepa-
rate the processes of in sdtu rock weathering
from the purely pedogeneltic processes which
lead to horizon differcntiation in sedentary
soils, and, where skeletal soils are concerned,
incipient pedogenesis and rock weathering
are probably syn0nymous.7~
Marbut defined two distinct soils in the
Amazon basin.75 One was a deep red clay,
akin to the Nipe Clay of Cuba, formed as a
residual product of weathering. The other,
more widespread, had a sandy topsoil sepa-
rated from the mottled clay subsoil by a thin
layer of ironstone nodulcs. Once exposed in
stream banks, the nodular horizon became
indurated. Marbut considered that the
nodules formed at the uplper limit of the
ground water table, and, like Campbell, he
thought that with uplift or a fall in base-level,
the sandy topsoil would be eroded and cx-
pose the nodular horizon, which would
harden to form the crust normally accepted as
laterite. The original soil was called a ground
water laterite.
Thc idea Ithat laterite is due to deposition
associated with a seasonally fluctuating water
table was further developed by Mohr.76 He
regarded laterite as the normal product of
subaerial weathering in the tropics, and de-
fined a maturity sequence developing on
basic volcanic ash and cmding in the for-
mation of laterite (Fig. 3 ) . I n the initial stage
silica, liberated by the breakdown of ferro-
magnesian minerals, is carried in solution
from the relatively more acid surface to be
precipitated at depth under more alkaline
conditions. A siliceous hardpan forms and
7* (~oldschmidt, 01,. cit., footnote 32; Crompton,
op. cit., footnote 32.
C. F. Marbut, “Morphology of Laterites,”
Proceedings of the Second International CongTess of
Soil Science, Vol. 5 ( 1930), pp. 72-80. See also the
fuller joint account by C. F. Marbut ancl C. B.
Manifold, “The Soils of the Amazon Basin in relation
Agricultural Possibilities,” Geographical Review,
t’ol. 16 (1926), pp. 414-42.
76E. C. J. Mohr, The Soils of Equatorial Regions
with special reference to the Netherlands East Indies,
translated by R. L. Pendleton (Michigan: Ann Arbor
Press, 1944), pp. 1-765. Mohr’s hypothesis is sunl-
inarized in chapter ten of E. C. J. Mohr and F. A.
Van Barcn, Tropical Soils: A Critical Stzcdy of Soil
Gcnesi.s as related tv Climate, Rock and Vegetation
( N e w York: Interscience, 1954), pp. 300-26.
1972 LATERITE
STAGE OF THE I 2 3
DEVELOPMEN1 2JUVENILE
cc
VIRILE
JL
FIG.3. Mohr’s scheme of laterite formation.
restricts infiltration, giving rise to a perched
water table. In the zone immediately above
the hardpan kaolinite is formed by the com-
bination of alumina with silica, and any
excess alumina forms gibbsite. At the upper
limit of the seasonally fluctuating perched
water table sesquioxides are precipitated, and
a mixture of iron oxide and kaolinite forms
the mottled clay beneath this zone of sesqui-
oxide concentration. The illuvial horizons are
formed from the bottom upwards, and are
designated in that order, with the mottled
kaolinitic clay Bz horizon above the siliceous
hardpan B , and beneath the sesquioxide layer
B3. With time, the& horizon rises as the Ba
horizon thickens, until the sesquioxide layer
forms a surface crust, consisting of a surface
iron-rich crust over a gibbsite-rich base. Mohr
referred to the pre-lateritic soil as a red earth,
which itself developed from a brown earth.
A major soil problem which now becam
apparent was how to distinguish a podzol
from a laterite.i7 Circular reasoning estab-
si J. B. Scrivenor’s review of C. S. Fox’s book on
Bauxite and Aluminous Laterite appeared in the
Geological Magazine for 1933, and finally spurred
Fox to sample Buchanan’s type laterite (q.v., foot-
note 48).
53
1 5
SEN I LE ‘LATERITIC‘ STAGE
lished that a podzol was formed by pod-
zolization, and a laterite by laterization.
Podzolization was later defined as a process
whereby aluminum and iron were moved
down a profile and reprecipitated at depth,
leaving silica behind. The converse was true
of the laterization: silica was moved, and iron
and aluminum oxides remained behind. Ac-
cording to the zonal concept, podzolization
was confined to temperate areas, and later-
ization to the tropics. Although Marbut con-
sidered that laterite, by which he meant the
red sedenltary clay rather than the ground
water laterite, was the zonal soil of the
tropics, he also cited examples of pene-
contemporaneous podzolization in the Ama-
zon valley.78 Marbut concluded that podzols
78 Marbut, op. cit., footnote 75; and Marbut and
Manifold, op. cit., footnote 75. Tropical podzols
were also described by A. W. R. Joachim, “Studies
on Ceylon Soils. 11. General Characteristics of
Ceylon Soils, some typical Soils of the Island, and
a tentative Scheme of Classification,” Tropical Agri-
culturalist, Vol. 84 (1935), pp. 254-74. More recent
work on tropical podzols is discussed in Mohr and
Van Baren, op. cit., footnote 76, pp. 398-409; E. W.
Russell, Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, ninth
edition (London: Longmans, 1 9 6 l ) , p. 585; and H.
Klinge, Report on Tropical Podzols (Rome: F.A.O.,
1968 )I
54 T. H. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS
were actively forming in this tropical area on
the basis of chemical analyses rather than
from soil profile morphology. Kellogg later
suggested the term “latosol” in lieu of laterite,
because he wanted a term sufficiently broad
to encompass podzolized Toils as well as
laterite soils.i“
CUKRENT DEFINITIONS
From about 1950 onward, two main schools
of thought relating to laterite may be dis-
cerned: the genetic and the empirical. The
genetic school defines laterite as a residual
concentration of iron and aluminum oxides
formed by the removal of the alkalis, alka-
line earths, and silica.80 The definition is
based upon an inferred weathering process.
The rmpiricists define laterite according to
one or more descriptive properties, without
directly implying anything about process.8l
The Indian concept of high-level (or pri-
mary) and low-level ( o r secondary) laterite
was a precursor of the genetic
Lacroix distinguished the “zone de dkpart,”
or residual weathering product, from the
“zone de concr&ion,” where iron and alumi-
niim oxides arc precipitated.83 In essence, the
distinction is between allochthonous and
autochthonous laterite, or between sites of
relative sesquioxide accumulation ( residual or
sedentary lateritic) and sites of absolute
sesquioxide accumulation.84 Following Mar-
but, and the Indian Geological Survey,
____-
79 C . E. Kellogg, “Tropical Soils,” Proceedings of
tlzc Fourth International Congress of Soil Science,
Vol. 1 (1950), p. 266.
bo 13. Eihart criticized H. Scaetta’s paleoclimatic
inferences about laterite on the grounds that the
genesis of laterite was still oliscure. See H. Erhart,
“Les tati.rlte\ du Moyen-Niger e t leur signification
pal&oclimatique,” C0rnpte.s Rendus de 1‘AcadPmie dc
Science de Paris, Vol. 217 (1943), pp. 323-25, ant1
11. Scaetta, “Sur un ph&nom&ned‘expurgation alliti-
que du sol tropical en Afrique occidentale,” ibid.,
V d . 208 (1939), pp. 912-14.
‘IL. T. Alexander and J. G. Cady, Genesis and
Hardening of Laterite in Soils, Technical Bulletin
No. 1282 (Washington: U. S. Department of Agri-
ciilture, 1962).
Medlicott and Blandford, op. cit., footnote 19.
’ 3 Lacroix, op. cit., footnote 57.
‘r4 J . d’Hoore, “L’accumulation cles sesquioxydes
libres daus les sols tropicaux,” Publication de I’Institzlf
National $Etudes Agronomiqucy du Congo Relge,
S h i e Scientifiquq No. (52 ( 1954).
March
dIIoore accepted only the residual form as
laterite.85
The rmpirical school originated with New-
bold and gained international acceptance
with the publication of Medlicott and Bland-
ford‘s In Europe, Harrassowitz was
a notable member of this school, and like
Newbold he applied the term laterite to a
wide variety of materials.8i Kellogg likewise
defined laterite descriptively as a sesquioxide-
rich, highly weathered, clayey material which
hardens irreversibly to concretions or crusts
when dehydrated, and may contain entrapped
quartzSs8Since laterite embraced both active
and fossil material, Kellogg proposed the term
latosol to define the contemporary zonal soil
of the tropics. According to Kellogg, latosols
had the following characteristics: a low silica/
sesquioxide ratio of the clay fraction; a
medium to low cation exchange capacity of
the mineral fraction in relation to clay con-
tent; a low content of primary minerals except
for resistant ones; a low content of soluble
material; a high degree of aggregate stability;
red hues; a thin organic layer above the A,
horizon; and a low silt content.
The problem with this empirical definition
of latosol is that the criteria are qualitative
and none is essential. Since only color, ag-
gregate stability, and organic litter can be
evaluated in the field, classification depends
upon laboratory analyses. Shortly after it was
coined, the term latosol was applied indis-
criminately to any reddish soil of the tropics,
in much the same way that Walther and von
Richthofen had used the term laterite seventy
years bef0re.8~
In the Seventh Approximation the oxisol
order was proposed to “include the soils that,
in recent years, have been called Latosols,
and many, if not most of those which have
been called Ground Water Idaterites.”90 Thc
-___
ii d’Hoore, op. cit., footnote 84.
p6 Medlicott and Blandford, op. cit., footnote 19.
$’ Harrassowitz, op. cit., footnote 71, and Newbold,
op. cit., footnote 11.
‘SKellogg, op. cit., footnote 79.
q’ Walther, op. cit., footnote 28; and von Richtho-
fen, op. cit., footnote 26.
Soil Conservation Service, Soil Classifzcation, A
Conapr~hensizje System: Seocnth Approximation
(Wabhington, 11. C.: U. S. (:oveinme~it Printing
Office, 1960), p. 238.
1972 LAlTRITE 55

persistence of the notion that oxisol formation, phology, and the laterite is dated by reference
and a fortiori laterite formation, demands a to the surface on which it occurs.93 Where
particular climate is also apparent in the laterite-capped remnants occur at varying
Seventh Approximation, whose authors state elevations, a single original surface is tacitly
that, as far as they are aware, “the occurrence assumed, and differential warping is invoked
of Oxisols is restricted to tropical and sub- to explain the discrepancy in height.g4 Since
tropical regions, though it is possible that a some forms of laterite occur on slopes of
few are present as relics in temperate fifteen degrees and more, the occurrence of
c l i r n a t e ~ . ” Such scattered ferricreted mesas need not imply
~ ~ a statement disregards the
work of Harrison, Goldschmidt, Robinson, prior surface planation.95The existence of a
and Crompton. monogenetic “standard lateritic profile” com-
prising ferruginous, mottled, and pallid zones
CONCLUSIONS is also open to
Perhaps the greatest misconception relating
The fact that the single term laterite has
to laterite is the notion that laterization (an
been applied to materials as diverse and genet- ill-defined and ill-understood complex of
ically distinct as iron-cemented colluvial weathering processes) demands a tropical
rubble, weathered basalt, mottled clays, and climate.97 Given a suitable lithology and
kaolinized igneous rocks has caused much rapid leaching, laterilte-like material can form
unnecessary confusion. An acceptable genetic in cool temperate to subarctic climates. To
definition of laterite must await careful refer to laterite as the zonal soil of the tropics
studies of the conditions under which silica, is to stress one soil-forming factor at the ex-
iron, manganese, and aluminum are mobi- pense of such other, equally important, fac-
lized, transported, and precipitated in the tors as parent material, topography, drainage,
field.g2 As long as such studies are in their and time; and to neglect the widespread oc-
infancy, a descriptive definition seems un-
avoidable. As a generic term, “laterite” should O3 Erosion surfaces have been correlated on the
be prefaced by an unambiguous set of de- basis of their laterite cappings by R. L. Wright,
scriptive epithets devoid of genetic connota- “Deep Weathering and Erosion Surfaces in the Daly
River Basin, Northern Territory,” Journal of the
tions, or abandoned altogether. Geological Society of Australia, \701. 10 ( 1963), pp.
The correlation of erosion surfaces capped 151-64; Hays, op. cit., footnote 17; and R. R. M a d ,
by various forms of laterite often involves the “Further Observations on the Laterites of Coastal
Natal, South Africa,” Transactions o f the Ninth
unproven assumption that the laterite is about International Congress of Soil Science, Vol. 4 (1968),
the same age as the surface it overlies, and pp. 151-158. Circular reasoning occurs in all three
can lead to circular reasoning whereby a sur- papers.
94 J. W. Pallister, “Erosion Levels and Laterite in
face is identified on the basis of laterite mor- Buganda Province, Uganda,” Comptcv Rendris du 10“
Congrks GBoZogique International, fascicule 21
B1 Soil Conservation Service, op. cit., footnote 90. (1954), pp. 193-99; and idem, “Slope Form and
92An interesting result to emerge from recent Erosion Surfaces in Uganda,” Geological Magazine.
measurements of dissolved river loads is that rates of Vol. 93 (1956), pp. 465-72.
chemical erosion are no faster in the tropics than in 95 R. V. Ruhe and J. G. Cady, “Latosolic so115 of
temperate and periglacial areas. Excellent studies are Central African Interior High Plateaus,” Proceedings
D. A. Livingstone, “Chemical Composition of Rivers of the Fifth International Congress of Soil Science,
and Lakes,” U . S. Geological Surcey Professional Vol. 5 (1964), p. 65; P. E. Playford, “Observations
Paper 440-G (1963), pp. 1-64; S. N. Davis, “Silica on Laterite in West Australia,” Australian Journal of
in Streams and Ground Water,” American Journal of Science, Vol. 17 (1954), pp. 11-13, M. J. Mulcahy,
Science, Vol. 262 (1964), pp. 870-91; R. J. Gibbs, “Laterites and Lateritic Soils in South-western ALS-
“The Geochemistry of the Amazon River system, Part tralia,” Journal of Sod Science, Vol. 11 (1960), pp.
1. The faotors that control the salinity and the 206-26, A. M. J. De Swardt, “Lateritisation and
composition and concentration of the suspended de- landscape development in parts of equatorial Africa,”
posits,” Geological Society of America Bulletin, Vol. Zeitschrift fiir Geomorphologie, Vol. 8 (1964), pp,
78 (1967), pp. 1203-32; and I. Douglas, “The effi- 313-33; and Williams, op. cit., footnote 17.
ciency of humid tropical denudation systems,” ”Hays, op. cit., footnote 17.
Institute of British Geographers Transactions, Vol. 46 Oi Cooke, op. a t . , footnote 31, and Flint, op. cit.,

(1969), pp. 1-16. footnote 31.

56 T. K. PATONAND M. A. J. WILLIAMS March

currence of podzols and solodized-solonetz Only by prolonged and rigorous attention

in the tropics wherc, by definition, they would to the processes involved in the formation of
be intrazona1.O8 the differenit forms of laterite, and by precise
definition of the endproducts of such proc-
ps For studies on tropical podzols see footnote 78. esses, will any real progress be made in the
In Australia solodized solonetz and solodic soils occur
from cool, temperate southern Tasmania to hot,
perplexing study of laterite.
tropical Cape York Peninsula. See H. C. T. Stace,
et al., A Ifandbook of Australian Soils (Glenside, classed as intrazonal? Mohr and Van Baren, op. cit.,
South Australia: Rellim, 1968), p. 162. Because footnote 76, p. 488, suggested “The climatological
many people think that laterite, latosols, and oxisols grouping of zonal, intrazonal and azonal should be
are tropical, by definition, should all podzols, solod- dropped, as the climate does not constitute a char-
ized solonetz, and other soils in the tropics be acter of the soil.”