The presence of caliche in a soil or sediment has many practical implications. These might include:

Caliche has a diversity of origins. The major process of forming caliche begins when calcium carbonate is leached from upper soil horizons by downward-percolating solutions. Dissolved calcium carbonate might also be delivered to the site in runoff and then percolate into the soil. The calcium carbonate then precipitates in a deeper soil horizon to form…

Typical caliche colors are white, gray, brown and reddish-brown. Well-developed caliche can have an appearance that resembles conglomerate, breccia, coquina, or sandstone if the cemented particles are of the proper type and size. Caliche can be a very hard, dense, heavy, and durable material if it is firmly bound by a cement that completely fills the interstitial voids between the…

“Caliche” is a shallow layer of soil or sediment in which the particles have been cemented together by the precipitation of mineral matter in their interstitial spaces. The cement is usually calcium carbonate; however, cements of magnesium carbonate, gypsum, silica, iron oxide, and a combination of these materials are known. Caliche is a common feature of…