Some Geological and Geote chnical Properties of Lateritic Soils from Muglad Basin Located in the South-Western Part of Sudan

Some Geological and Geote chnical Properties of Lateritic Soils from Muglad Basin Located in the South-Western Part of SudanThe soil name "laterite" was coined by Buchanan (1807) in India, from a Latin word "later" meaning brick (Raychaudhuri, 1980). Lateritic soils are highly weathered and altered residual soils formed by the insitu weathering and/or decomposition of rocks in the tropical and sub-tropical regions with hot, humid climatic conditions. Laterites are rich in iron oxides, aluminum oxides and low silicates but may contain appreciable amounts of kaolinite and due to the presence of iron oxides; lateritic soils are red in colour (Amu and Adetuberu, 2010). The process of weathering produces a wide variety in the thickness, grade, chemistry and ore mineralogy of the resulting soils. Lateritic soils are widely used as fill materials for various construction works in most tropical countries. These soils are weathered under conditions of high temperatures and humidity with well-defined alternating wet and dry seasons resulting in poor engineering properties such as high plasticity, poor workability, low strength, high permeability, tendency to retain moisture and high natural moisture content Maigien (1966); Gidigasu (1976); Charman (1988). Considerable studies have been carried out on the engineering geological properties of the soil by various researchers (Akpokodje, 1986; Alabo and Pandy, 1987; Arumala and Akpokodje, 1987; Leton and Omotosho, 2004 and Omotosho and Eze-Uzomaka, 2008)