v41e0160507

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Article

Rev Bras Cienc Solo 2017;41:e0160507

Division - Soil in Space and Time | Commission - Soil Genesis and Morphology

Genesis of Soils from Bauxite in Southeastern Brazil: Resilication as a Soil-Forming Process Ana Carolina Campos Mateus(1), Fábio Soares de Oliveira(2)*, Angélica Fortes Drummond Chicarino Varajão(1), and Caroline Cibele Vieira Soares(3) (1)

Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Departamento de Geologia, Programa de Pós-graduação em Evolução Crustal e Recursos Naturais, Campus Morro do Cruzeiro, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brasil. (2) Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Instituto de Geociências, Departamento de Geografia, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil. (3) Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Departamento de Geologia, Alegre, Espírito Santo, Brasil.

* Corresponding author E-mail: fabiosolos@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: Pedological studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) showed a Xanthic Ferralsol formed from the degradation of bauxite on a slope in the Caparaó region, in southeastern Brazil. We found a decrease in the number and size of bauxite fragments toward the top of the profiles, bauxite fragments that were more degraded at the top of the profiles, transformation of gibbsite into kaolinite, and absolute enrichment in silicon in the mass balance. These indicators suggest that resilication could be the major process responsible for formation of the soil; detailed studies are needed to verify the origin of the silica. The reintroduction of silica into the system occurs by the biogeochemical cycling of vegetation and, in some cases, water table fluctuations, highlighting the role of resilication as a soil-forming process in bauxite-derived soils. Keywords: pedogenesis, Ferralsol, kaolinite, micromorphology.

Received: November 15, 2016 Approved: May 12, 2017 How to cite: Mateus ACC, Oliveira FS, Varajão AFDC, Soares CCV. Genesis of soils from bauxite in southeastern Brazil: resilication as a soil-forming process. Rev Bras Cienc Solo. 2017;41:e0160507. https://doi.org/10.1590/18069657rbcs20160507

Copyright: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original author and source are credited.

https://doi.org/10.1590/18069657rbcs20160507

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