Titaniferous-Ferruginous Laterite of Meyer Lake, Molokai, Hawaii 1 
G. Donald Sherman, Judith Fujioka, and Giichi Fujimoto 2 
The soils belonging to the ferruginous humic 
latosol group in the Hawaiian Islands have 
accumulated titanium oxide in or near the 
surface horizon of the soil profile. Cline et al. 
(in press) have separated this group of soils 
on this basis in their classification of Hawaiian 
soils. Sherman (1949, 1952) has shown that 
these soils have progressively accumulated 
iron and titanium oxide with soil weathering 
age. A highly weathered soil, rich in titanium 
oxide, would represent the anatase-leucoxene 
stage of the weathering sequences described 
by Jackson et al. (1948). This weathering 
stage would include anatase and leucoxene, 
which are hydrated amorphous titanium ox- 
ides according to Carroll and Woof (1951), 
both products of the weathering synthesis 
mechanism and ilmenite, brookite, and rutile 
of the weathering residue mechanism, Jackson 
and Sherman (1953). 
During 1952 and 1953 the guava and other 
shrubs were cleared from a large area of land 
around Meyer Lake on the island of Molokai 
for the purpose of pasture improvement. The 
entire area was plowed, exposing areas of 
soils of extremely high titanium content. 
Many of these titanium-rich areas occurred 
as indurate dehydrated areas which are easily 
detected by their grayish purple color as com- 
1 Published with the approval of the Director of the 
University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station 
as Technical Paper No. 332. Manuscript received July 
30 , 1954 . 
2 Chemist, Assistant in Chemistry, and Assistant 
Chemist, University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment 
Station. 
pared to the reddish brown color of the sur- 
rounding area. A closer examination of these 
indurate areas revealed that they contained 
numerous, magnetic ferruginous concretions. 
The development of these concretions in- 
dicated a movement of iron in solution from 
the surrounding area and its redeposition from 
either near-surface percolating water or ascend- 
ing water from the subsoil. The occurrence 
of the indurate areas cannot be attributed 
entirely to a difference in degree of slope, but 
rather to areas where exposure of sufficient 
magnitude has occurred to cause the dehy- 
dration of the hydrated oxides. The concre- 
tionary indurate soil horizons usually oc- 
curred on a gentle slope with a majority of 
them occurring near the foot of the slope. The 
accumulation of concretions appeared to be 
the result of micro relief in the slope or re- 
tardation of percolating waters due to reduced 
porosity of the soil. 
It was also observed that some movement 
of soil aggregates and concretions did occur 
as the result of erosion. These could be found 
at the foot of the steep slope directly west of 
Meyer Lake. The deposits of these materials 
were quite distinct from the concretionary 
indurate layers. The latter is due to synthesis 
mechanism, whereas the deposits near Meyer 
Lake are mechanically sorted materials having 
different physical characteristics. They are re- 
cent deposition resulting from the removal 
of cover and subsequent rains. 
The exposure of the area around Meyer 
Lake has given an excellent opportunity to 
49 
