Silcrete (siliceous paleosol) in the Waddens Cove Formation (formed during the Pennsylvanian), Sydney Basin, Nova Scotia
Silcrete is an indurated (resists crumbling or powdering) soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The formation of silcrete is similar to that of calcrete, formed by calcium carbonate, and ferricrete, formed by iron oxide. It is a hard and resistant material, and though different in origin and nature, appears similar to quartzite. As a duricrust, there is potential for preservation of root structures as trace fossils.
Silcrete is common in the arid regions of Australia and Africa often forming the resistant cap rock on features such as the breakaways of the Stuart Range of South Australia. Silcrete can be found at a lesser extent throughout the world especially England (e.g. Hertfordshire puddingstone and sarsen stone), and France.[1] In the Great Plains of the United States, polished silcrete cobbles are locally common on the surface and in river gravels east of the outcrops of the Ogallala Formation.[2][3]
^Ullyott, J.; Nash, D.; Whiteman, C.; Mortimore, R. (2004). "Distribution, Peterology, and Mode of Development of Silcretes (Sarsens and Puddingstones) on the Eastern South Downs, UK". Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 29 (12): 1509–1539. Bibcode:2004ESPL...29.1509U. doi:10.1002/esp.1136. S2CID 128835601.
^McCoy, Zaneta (2011). The Distribution and Origin of Silcrete in the Ogallala Formation, Garza County, Texas(PDF) (MSc). Texas Tech University. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
^Cite error: The named reference Hoard was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Silcrete is an indurated (resists crumbling or powdering) soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The...
used regularly and systematically by early modern humans to heat treat silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking approximately...
Hampshire. Sarsen stones are the post-glacial remains of a cap of Cenozoic silcrete that once covered much of southern England. This is thought to have formed...
hard, brittle stones, rich in silica, such as quartzite, chert, flint, silcrete and quartz (the latter particularly in the Kimberleys of Western Australia)...
during the final shaping of Still Bay bifacial points made on heat‐treated silcrete." Both pressure flaking and heat treatment of materials were previously...
Renosterveld – Vegetation type endemic to the Western Cape, South Africa Swartland Silcrete Renosterveld The World Wide Fund for Nature divides the Cape floristic...
000 years ago. Evidence also exists for the systematic heat treating of silcrete stone to increase its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking, beginning...
region of the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where it occurs on silcrete, but also in flat, coastal sandy or clay Renosterveld vegetation, between...
combination of carbonized roots and rootlets, rhizoliths, illuvial clay cutans, silcrete-like silica cements, and the leaching and alteration of the sandy sediments...
dominant raw material used for Still Bay point production in Blombos Cave is silcrete (72%), followed by quartzite (15%) and quartz (13%). Whereas the quartzite...
dissolve silicon oxide rather than the aluminum oxides and iron oxides. Silcrete has been suggested to form in zones in relatively dry "precipitating zones"...
sesquioxides of iron; alcrete (bauxite) is dominated by sesquioxides of aluminum; silcrete by silica; calcrete (caliche) by calcium carbonate, and gypcrete (gypcrust)...
when it is used in order to create stronger tools, such as the heated silcrete at Blombos, Howiesons Poort and Still Bay, and the heat treated bone tools...
del Fuego. In Uruguay, Fishtail points were most often manufactured from silcrete (54%), with other source rocks including chert (10%) jasper (9%) quartzite...
Sepiolite-cemented material has been termed "sepiocrete" as calcrete, silcrete or ferricrete is used to refer to materials cemented by calcite, silica...
Gardens Scarred tree. Bundoora Park: extensively used for bark and quarrying silcrete, fifteen archeological sites in the area. Burnley Park Corroboree Tree...
explained by contamination of newer carbon in the samples analyzed. 11 silcrete flakes dating to 50,000 years ago represents the first evidence of human...
and food resources depleted. Their country contained the most important silcrete, chert and quartzite mines in Tasmania. The South East people had a hostile...
developed soils that usually have a relatively impermeable layer (claypan or silcrete duripan) in the subsoil. This impermeable layer locally impedes drainage...
Gunai/Kurnai people manufactured stone tools, as long as 5,000 years ago, from silcrete quarries in the Haunted Hills, west of Morwell. Scarred trees and rock...
silica during early diagenesis. Elsewhere, beekite has been compared to silcrete, indicating a break in sedimentation, where it occurs as encrustations...
followed by Hoz de Gallo Conglomerate, this is capped by sandstone and silcrete at another unconformity marking the end of the Permian. Then in the Triassic...
extent of Renosterveld in the Swartland, a related biome Swartberg shale renosterveld Swartberg granite renosterveld Swartberg silcrete renosterveld...
of the Mt Carmel Ranges. Taungurung people could also obtain quartz and silcrete for the manufacture of tools for hunting and food preparation from Mt Balck...
typically ranging from 2 to 200 millimetres (0.1 to 7.9 in) diameter. silcrete An indurated soil duricrust formed when surface sand and gravel are cemented...
Demonstrating the Stratigraphic Integrity of Madjedbebe: An Analysis of Silcrete Lithic Artefacts. Unpublished BA(Hons) thesis, School of Social Science...
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