Climatic zonality of coarse granitic saprolites ("arènes ") in atlantic Europe from Scandinavia to Portugal

Coarse granitic saprolites or "arenes" of Western Europe are characterized by a climatic zonality of secondary minerals, e.g. vermiculite and mixed layers in Scandinavia, Scotland and Vosges in France ; kaolinite and gibbsite in Galicia and NW Portugal ; mixture of both with various proportions in Middle Europe according to the sites. 40 % average loss of the primary components and high degree of mineralogical evolution resulting in gibbsite, lead the authors to propo¬ se arenization to be considered as one of the major weathering systems on the Earth's surface, similar to smectitization and kaolinitization.