ABSTRACT In the Southern Espinhaço Mountain Chain and in the Upper Jequitinhonha Valley, magnetic soils, in different pedogenetic stages, are found to be forming over intrusions of basic lithology. The essential chemical and mineralogical properties of samples from magnetic soil profiles from those two physiographic environments in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, are reported. Three of the pedons (Rhodic Kandiustox – RKox, Rhodic Haplustox – RHox, and Typic Argiustoll – TAoll) were identified as being indeed developed over basic […]

The main objective of this work was to characterize the magnetic minerals and to identify their pedogenic transformation on a steatite-forming soil of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The iron-rich spinel phase was characterized by chemical analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, Mössbauer spectroscopy, with and without an externally applied magnetic field of 6 tesla, and saturation magnetization measurements. Nearly stoichiometric and well-crystallized magnetite was the only magnetic mineral actually detected. The cubic unit cell parameter of the fresh rock magnetite was found to […]