The terms cat clay or cat clay phenomenon are well known to pedologists but unfortunately are not familiar to many geologists, though the phenomenon is an important and widespread geochemical and biogeochemical process. An engineering geologist should be able to predict and warn of the possibility of formation of cat clay in a developing area because of its low agricultural productivity, acidity, and corrosiveness.
A more scientific synonym for cat clay is acid sulphate soils . The English term cat clay is a translation of the original Dutch name Kattecleigronden . The Dutch name was established in about the seventeenth century and was given to soils of some reclaimed areas that became gradually highly acidic and developed prominent yellowish mottling and crusts composed of jarosite and related sulfates, which resembled cat excreta. In northern Germany similar clays were called Maibolt , a combination of two words: hay field and Kobolt, ‘an evil ghost.’ The first...
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Prokopovich, N.P. (1988). Cat clays . In: General Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30844-X_16
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