Evaluation of Al enrichment and economic potential of iron depleted lateritic soils in the sedimentary flat plateau of Triângulo Mineiro

• Grant number: 13/15942-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2013
• End date: October 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Vania Silvia Rosolen
• Grantee: Carla Vanessa de Sousa Coelho
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Tropical soils are recognized by hold lateritic mineral produced by tropical weathering on different rocks, and affected by landforms and paleoclimatic changes. The bioclimatic imbalance as a development of properties of hydromorphy, can lead structural, chemical and mineralogical changes in old soil covers, and create a suitable environment to concentrate aluminous clays, which have good potential to drag out. This process occurs in the flat plateau of Triângulo Mineiro whose hydromorphic soils developed in topographic depression on surface of plateaus, have shown iron depleted soil matrix with distinct contents of aluminous-clay material, used as refractory. However, the process that carries out the enrichment or lateral losses (enrichment content vary from 70 to 20% of Al, from upstream to downstream) are not yet realized, which justifies the advancement of research in the area.