TITLE:
Compositional Suitability Assessment and New Classification of Lateritic Soils for Road Construction: Case of Materials from the Thies Region in Senegal
AUTHORS:
Baye Oumar Diop, Ignace Gbaguidi, Papa Goumbo Lo, Seynabou Sène, Aminata Cisse, Makhaly Ba, Khadym Niang
KEYWORDS:
Lateritic Gravel, Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Soil Profile, Thies
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.13 No.1,
January
13,
2025
ABSTRACT: Lateritic soils are found over large areas in tropical countries where their suitability for road engineering is a real concern, both compositionally and mechanically. Mineralogical and geochemical characterization, and profile description were carried out on Pliocene gravel lateritic soils from the Thies region to assess their suitability for road construction. These soils were sampled in Lam-Lam, Mont Rolland, Pout, Ngoundiane and Sindia borrow pits in that region. Minerals that make up these studied materials are quartz, kaolinite, hematite and goethite, identified by X-Ray Diffraction and confirmed with Infrared spectroscopy. This mineralogy is characteristic of lateritic soils which are concretionary structure and are formed in well-drained tropical regions like that of Thies. According to the chemical results, these gravel lateritic soils are poor in organic matter, OM 2/(Al2O3 + Fe2O3) Diop ternary diagram for classifying lateritic soils. Therefore, Thies materials are ferruginous lateritic soils, Al2O3/Fe2O3