Investigation of laterite stones for building purpose from Malabar region, Kerala state, SW India – Part 1: Field studies and profile characterisation

This paper describes the first part of a project that aims to evaluate laterite for building purposes from 4 widely placed major quarries of the Malabar region in Kerala in western India. The work reported herein is a comprehensive investigation of the laterite quarries, in view of assessing the characteristics of laterite for building purposes on a regional basis. The in situ characteristics of laterite like colour, texture, structure and hardness were determined by field study. Freshly quarried laterite building blocks from different depths of the quarry as supplied commercially, were evaluated for their engineering characteristics. The physical and mechanical properties of laterite were found to be dependent on the in situ profile characteristics of the rock, viz., colour, texture and structure. The properties of laterite were found to vary widely, based on the location and depth of the quarry. The process of selection of laterite for construction purposes, based on field observations, is also outlined in this paper.