Laterite soil is rich in:

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CHSL Previous Paper 114 (Held On: 17 March 2020 Shift 1)

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Answer 1

The correct answer is Iron Oxide.

Key Points

Laterite is a Latin word that means "Later".
Francis Hamilton (a Scottish Physician) first described and named a laterite formation in Southern India in 1807.
Laterite is both soil and a rock type and rich in Iron & Aluminium.
Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content.
They evolve by intense and sustained weathering of the underlying parent rock.
Laterite soils have a high content of clay, which ensures that they have a greater ability to exchange cations and retain water than sandy soils, and can thus be used as a hard material like a brick.
It is formed in hot & wet tropical areas & majorly found between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
Angkor wat in Cambodia is an example for use of laterite soil as a construction material.

Example of construction with Laterite in Angkor, Cambodia