Lateritic and redoximorphic features in a faulted landscape near Manaus, Brazil

Summary The soils and sediments of the uplands in the Manaus region are described and analysed along a representative cross-section. There are two broad types of features, lateritic and redoximorphic. Their formation is linked to two main processes acting under contrasted hydrological regimes. The first process, acting under well-drained conditions, is lateritization. It has transformed strongly weathered sediment into soil and led to depletion of silica (mainly quartz) as well as to relative accumulation of both kaolinite and iron oxides (haematite and goethite). Crystallographic changes observed in the latter have resulted from alternating dissolution and crystallization cycles without significant transfer of iron and alumina. However, in the uppermost soil, dissolution of kaolinite has prevailed over crystallization, leading to depletion of clay and the formation of tiny crystals of gibbsite disseminated throughout the groundmass. The second process results from the development of reducing conditions in groundwater giving redoximorphic features in lateritic soils and sediments. In the sediments, iron has been depleted by regional aquifers to form a pallid zone. In the soil, large amounts of iron and minor amounts of alumina, mainly from aluminous goethite, have been mobilized at first in small patches, which with further mobilization and vertical transfer of these elements have increased in size and have led to the formation of bleached horizons over thin iron pans. Iron has crystallized predominantly as haematite in the iron pans and alumina as large crystals of gibbsite in soil voids. Formation of impervious iron pans holds up fluctuating perched groundwater in the overlying horizons depending on rainfall events. Neotectonic events (formation of uplifted blocks and small grabens) have markedly altered the hydrological regimes. In the uplifted blocks, the soil has been deeply truncated and iron loss has been checked in the uppermost sediment. By contrast, mobilization of iron has been initiated at various places in the soil of the small grabens. In this way tectonic events have checked mobilization of iron in sediments but activated it in soils, leaving spectacular fingerprints on the landscape.