Notes on the Formation of Lateritoid in N. Rhodesia

Abstract

In this paper no new theory is offered as to the formation of those rocks, found in so many places in the Tropics, known as laterites and lateritoids. Rather is it offered as confirmatory evidence of the hypothesis, which has been put forward by several writers (5), that in general they are formed by the evaporation of iron-bearing waters as they are brought to the surface by one or more causes, such as capillarity and hydrostatic pressure. The part that animal life may play in the deposition of the iron, as well as in the solution of it, does not appear, however, to have been noted (5).