Where is laterite soil found

Laterite is frequently pisolitic pealike. The term laterite means a red rock or red earth deposit. Laterites are formed by the decomposition of different kind of rocks, under conditions yielding aluminum and iron hydroxides. Alluvial soil. The other name of padkhau soil is alluvial soil and brought by rivers.

Explanation: Potash is abundant in this soil, but lack of nitrogen, phosphorus and humus. Francis Buchanan-Hamilton first described and named a laterite formation in southern India in He named it laterite from the Latin word later, which means a brick; this highly compacted and cemented soil can easily be cut into brick-shaped blocks for building.

Black soil Black soil is called an cotton soil because cotton is a well grown crop on the black soil which grows very well. Explanation: The mountail soil is a highly leached soil which is acidic in nature and is poorly fertile too.

It is also found in the himalyas , north eastern hills and other mountains…. Plains and valleys have thick layers of soils while hilly and plateau areas depict thin soil cover. Some soils like alluvial and black soils are fertile while some other soils such as laterite, desert and alkaline soils lack in fertility and do not yield good harvest. Indian soils have been used for cultivation for hundreds of years and have lost much of their fertility. Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss an important update!!

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Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss an important update! Red Soils Red soils along with its minor groups form the largest soil group of India.

The main parent rocks are crystalline and metamorphic rocks like acid granites, gneisses and quartzites. On the uplands, the red soils are poor, gravelly, and porous. But in the lower areas they are rich, deep dark and fertile. They are acidic mainly due to the nature of the parent rocks.

The alkali content is fair. When limestone, granites, gneisses and quartzites are eroded the clay enclosed within the rocks remains intact with other forms of non-soluble materials. In oxidizing conditions, rust or iron oxide develops in the clay, when the soil is present above the water table giving the soil a characteristic red colour.

The colour is more due to the wide diffusion rather than high percentage of iron oxide content. The red soils are mostly loamy and hence cannot retain water like the black soils. The red soils, with the proper use of fertilizers and irrigation techniques, give good yield of cotton, wheat, rice, pulses, millets, tobacco, oil seeds, potatoes and fruits.

They are formed under conditions of high temperature and heavy rainfall with alternate wet and dry periods. Heavy rainfall promotes leaching nutrients gets washed away by water of soil whereby lime and silica are leached away and a soil rich in oxides of iron and aluminium compounds is left behind. Sometimes, the phosphate content may be high in the form of iron phosphate. Continuous stretch of laterite soil is found on the summits of Western Ghats at to m above mean sea level, Eastern Ghats, the Rajmahal Hills, Vindhyan, Satpuras and Malwa Plateau.

They are well developed in south Maharashtra, parts of Karnataka etc. When manured and irrigated, some laterites are suitable for growing plantation crops like tea, coffee, rubber, cinchona, coconut, arecanut, etc. They are mainly heterogeneous soils found on the hill slopes covered by forests.

Red soils also have higher iron, lime content and aluminium. Red soils has better drainage capacity than other soils. They are porous, fine-grained and fertile in nature. Red soils have higher iron, aluminium and lime content and have high acidic nature also.

Red soils are generally derived from crystalline rock. They are usually poor growing soils, low in nutrients and humus and difficult to be cultivated because of its low water holding capacity. Red soils are an important resource. The black soils are made up of extremely fine i.

They are well-known for their capacity to hold moisture. In addition, they are rich in soil nutrients, such as calcium carbonate, magnesium, potash and lime. These soils are generally poor in phosphoric contents. Black soil in India is rich in metals such as Iron, Magnesium and Aluminum. However it is deficient in Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorous and Humus. Black soil is of red colour mainly due to its iron oxide content. Chemically, the black soils are rich in lime, iron, magnesia and alumina.

They also contain potash. The deep black cotton soils are generally considered not suitable for mango cultivation, since soils are generally avoided for planting mango plants. The mango growing soils should preferably have a very low total water soluble salt content of 0. Mango grows well on wide variety of soils, such as lateritic, alluvial, sandy loam and sandy.

The loamy, alluvial, well-drained, aerated and deep soils