Profile Distribution of Crystalline and Amorphous Sesquioxides in Talc Overburden Soils of Southern Guinea Savanna Ecology in Nigeria

The stage of development of soils developed over talc overburden in two locations (Ejiba and Odo- Ogbe) within the Southern Guinea Savanna Agro-ecology of Kogi State, Nigeria, were evaluated using the dithionite and oxalate extractable Fe, Al oxides and the ratios of silt: clay and silt: silt +clay of the soils. Soil samples collected from the pedogenic horizons of nine profile pits dug in the two sites were analyzed using standard procedures. The soils had higher values of dithionite- extractable Fe and Al oxides (Fed, Ald) than oxalate- extractable forms (Feo, Alo), indicating that these soils had a higher content of the crystalline forms of these sesquioxides. The pattern of profile distribution of the sesquioxides and clay-sized particles were similar, resulting in a significant correlation (P