Abstract
THE colour in red beds and red soils is generally acknowledged to be caused by the presence of finely dispersed haematite or hydro-haematite. The origin of the haematite remains, however, in dispute1–3. In the case of present-day red weathering in the tropics and subtropics, the haematite or other colouring material is obviously derived by in situ alteration of iron-bearing minerals in the parent rock or soil, but opinion is divided as to whether the haematite or its precursor are of detrital or authigenic origin2,3 and Chukhrov1 considers that red beds could never have formed from laterite. The minerals thought to have altered to give iron oxides and hydroxides are silicates, particularly olivine, pyroxene, biotite and hornblende, and the oxides magnetite and ilmenite. I describe here a case of alteration of pyrite to haematite with the subsequent development of red regolith, and suggest that the alteration of detrital or biogenic pyrite may have more general application to the problem of red beds.
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References
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CHALLIS, G. Pyrite–haematite alteration as a source of colour in red beds and regolith. Nature 255, 471–472 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/255471b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/255471b0
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