| Abstract: | Geochemical soil surveys in areas underlain by Precambrian volcano-metasedimentary sequences and around rare-metal-bearing pegmatites of southwestern Nigeria demonstrate that residual geochemical soil patterns reflect a wide range of potential source rocks adequately. The secondary geochemical dispersion processes in these typically tropical weathering environments adjust the trace-element distribution during lateritic soil development to narrow fluctuation ranges in comparison to the differing Clarke values of various source rock units.The sample density in these soil surveys, averaging at one sample per square kilometer, favours geochemical inventories even at regional scale and shows great potentials to predict bedrock composition of tropical terrain where rock outcrops are rather scarce. |
