English

Caliche (form of sodium nitrate)

An exposed layer of chalk overlain with caliche

Noun

caliche ‎(countable and uncountable, plural caliches)

1. (mineralogy) A crude form of sodium nitrate from South America; used as a fertilizer.
2. 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).

Anagrams

• chalice

Spanish

Noun

caliche m ‎(plural caliches)

1. saltpeter
2. salitre