caliche
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Caliche_-_Sedimentary_Rock_Ridgecrest_Kern_County_California.jpg/220px-Caliche_-_Sedimentary_Rock_Ridgecrest_Kern_County_California.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Chalk_with_cover_of_Caliche_Naari_a_road_38.jpg/220px-Chalk_with_cover_of_Caliche_Naari_a_road_38.jpg)
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Spanish, from Latin calx (“pebble”); compare chalk.
Pronunciation
Noun
caliche (countable and uncountable, plural caliches)
- (mineralogy) A crude form of sodium nitrate from South America; used as a fertilizer.
- A layer of hard clay subsoil or sedimentary rock; hardpan.
- 1929, US Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Soil Survey of Potter County, Texas, page 44,
- According to local well drillers, in wells drilled on the high plains a few hundred feet back from the caliche escarpment or in other locations on the high plains in this area no hard caliche or white layer, such as would characterize a soft layer of high lime-carbonate content, is generally reached at a depth corresponding to the elevation of the caliche escarpment.
- 1985, Julie Behrend Weinberg, Growing Food In the High Desert Country, page 17,
- Having a layer of caliche at depths of 16 inches and less really puts a damper on the garden site. The caliche does not allow roots to penetrate it (tree roots often take 10 years to break through a caliche layer) nor does this mineral allow water to drain.
- 2011, Hüseyin Yalçin, Ömer Bozkaya, Chapter 7: Sepiolite-Palygorskite Occurrences in Turkey, Arieh Singer, Emilio Galan (editors), Developments in Palygorskite-Sepiolite Research, page 186,
- Caliche in various forms, namely powdery, nodule, tube, fracture-infill, laminar crust, hard laminated crust (hardpan) and pisolitic crust, is widespread in the Mersin area in southern Turkey (Eren et al., 2008; Kadir and Eren, 2008).
- 1929, US Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, Soil Survey of Potter County, Texas, page 44,
Anagrams
Spanish
Noun
caliche m (plural caliches)