What is it about?
Nickel-rich laterites result from a long story covering more than 25 Ma, including the formation of laterite under hot and humid tropical climate, exhumation, erosion, and dismantling of the earliest laterite, Ni transfer during the deepening of the laterite profile, lateral and vertical transfer linked to relief and faulting.
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Why is it important?
Nickel rich laterite appear to be the result of a long multistage evolution of the soil profile. The competition between exhumation and erosion result in contrasted relief and altitudes, and a part of the transfers depend on the hydrogeologic regime (rythm of the deepening of the valley, role of inherited fault systems forming the networks of active fluid pathways) and the changes in climatic conditions (hot and humid climate during oligocene, dryer periods in Miocene).
Perspectives
Relationships between exhumation rates, climatic evolution and geomorphology are crucial for explaining the behaviour of metals in the inherited and newly formed soil profiles. All these factors may be used in more detailed 2D to 3D modelling of the reactive transport within complex media characterized both by matrix and fracture permabilities.
Michel Cathelineau
Universite de Lorraine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Peridotite Weathering and Ni Redistribution in New Caledonian Laterite Profiles: Influence of Climate, Hydrology, and Structure, Minerals, October 2024, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/min14111082.
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