In spite of the fact that basalt formations are found in several regions in Brazil, it is difficult to find investigations on the subject relating chemical and mineralogical characteristics with geotechnical ones. The site of the present study comprises a soil slope on the North-South Railroad, at Arguianópolis, Tocantins State. Several landslides occurred during the construction of the railway. The soil mass is mostly composed by soils resulting from basalt alterations. The present study was developed in two stages. The first stage comprised a visit to the site, when a morphologic description of profiles was made and undisturbed and remoulded soil samples were extracted. The second stage refers to works developed at the Geotechnical and Environmental Laboratory of PUC-Rio, at EMBRAPA Soils and at the Geology Department of the Institute of Geosciences of the UFRJ. Such works comprised soil characterization tests; mineralogical tests; chemical analyses; definition of soil-moisture characteristic curves; erodobility tests and special tests to determine strength and compressibility parameters. The results obtained provide a contribution to a better understanding of weathering profiles in rocks of basic character.