Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The process by which a laterite develops.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geology, the process of subaërial decay in certain rocks which yields laterite.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[later(ite) + –ization.]

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Examples

  • The piedmont savanna is patchy, varying according to its degree of laterization and pan-development; in places it is marshy overlying rock pavement.

    Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire 2008

  • Toward lower latitudes, the tendency to laterization becomes stronger and Ultisols are encountered.

    Eastern Broadleaf Forest (Oceanic) Province (Bailey) 2009

  • MRI also said that not enough was known about the effects of killing vegetation over large areas — including possible localized climatic changes or drainage pattern changes which might result in increased laterization (iron-hardpan formation).

    Operation Ranch Hand Buckingham, William A. 1982

  • Only about 30% of the soil was of the type susceptible to laterization, and defoliation did not produce bare dirt which might increase the evaporation rate of ground water, possibly hastening the precipitation of ferrous iron and its oxidization into the insoluble ferric form.

    Operation Ranch Hand Buckingham, William A. 1982

  • Tschirley asserted that herbicide use would not significantly hasten the laterization of soil in Vietnam.

    Operation Ranch Hand Buckingham, William A. 1982

  • The disappearance of tungsten minerals from alluvial materials which are undergoing laterization, which has been described in Burma, [32] seems to indicate that the tungsten is dissolved in surface waters to some extent; but in the main it is probably carried completely out of the vicinity and not reprecipitated below.

    The Economic Aspect of Geology 1915

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