LATERITIC BAUXITE PROFILES OF SOUTH-WESTERN AND SOUTHERN INDIA - CHARACTERISTICS AND TECTONIC SIGNIFICANCE

The lateritic bauxite profiles occur widely distributed as cappings ov er the high plateaus and hill ranges in the inland areas and coastal t racts of southern Peninsular India. There is an undoubted genetic conn ection between the profiles and the underlying bed rocks, which largel y include the Precambrian charnockite, leptynite, khondalite and Penin sular Gneisses and the Tertiary Deccan volcanics. The profiles have de veloped by intense in situ chemical weathering under tropical-subtropi cal climatic conditions. Available geomorphological and palaeobotanica l evidence is strongly suggestive of the formation of these profiles m ostly during the Tertiary period when the landforms had attained tecto nic stability and the conditions were favourable for lateritization/ba uxitization.