caliche
Americannoun
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a surface deposit consisting of sand or clay impregnated with crystalline salts such as sodium nitrate or sodium chloride.
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a zone of calcium carbonate or other carbonates in soils of semiarid regions.
noun
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Also called: calcrete. a bed of sand or clay in arid regions cemented by calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, and other soluble minerals
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Also called: duricrust. a surface layer of soil encrusted with calcium carbonate, occurring in arid regions
Etymology
Origin of caliche
1855–60; < Spanish: flake of lime, equivalent to cal lime (< Latin calc-; see chalk) + -iche noun suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Plants themselves sequester carbon but in the desert soils there’s this caliche layer,” Dashiell says.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2024
Expect gooseberry, pink grapefruit and minerality thanks to the caliche soils these vines grow in.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 28, 2020
He’s divorced with three grown daughters and lives alone in a small cabin on the ranch, removed from civilization by 30 miles of bone white caliche road.
From The Guardian • Jun. 19, 2017
When well developed, caliche cements the surrounding material together to form a layer that has the consistency of concrete.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
By the time of Gilmore’s visit, Blackwater Draw was an arid, almost vegetation-free jumble of sandy drifts and faces of fractured caliche.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
