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A new collection of clay mineral ‘Crystallinity’ Index Standards and revised guidelines for the calibration of Kübler and Árkai indices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2018

Laurence N. Warr
Laurence N. Warr*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
*
E-mail: warr@uni-greifswald.de
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Abstract

A new set of clay mineral ‘Crystallinity’ Index Standards (CIS) is available for improved calibration of the half-peak-width values of the X-ray diffraction 001 illite reflection (the Kübler index) and the 002 chlorite reflection (the Árkai index), two widely used indices for determining the state of prograde diagenesis and low-temperature metamorphism. Calibration using mudrock standards removes the numerical differences between laboratories caused by variations in sample preparation, machine settings and measurement methods, thus avoiding erroneous grade determinations. The number of standards available has been increased to nine. These can be used to obtain Kübler index values for each CIS sample and Árkai index values for upper anchizonal and epizonal samples. The diagenetic and lower anchizonal mudrocks are not suitable for Árkai index measurements due to the absence of chlorite or overlap by the 001 kaolinite reflection. Applying the new Kübler-equivalent upper and lower boundary limits of the anchizone placed at 0.32°2θ and 0.52°2θ, respectively (Warr & Ferreiro Mählmann, 2015), the nine standards from the Palaeozoic mudrocks of southwest England now comprise two diagenetic, two lower anchizonal, three upper anchizonal and two epizonal grade samples. These range from weakly cleaved mudstones to strongly foliated slates.

Keywords

XRDillitechloritediagenesismetamorphismanchizoneFWHM calibration
Type
Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 339 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2018 

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Footnotes

This paper was presented during the session: ‘GG01 – Clays in faults and fractures + MI-03 – Clay mineral reaction progress in very low-grade temperature petrologic studies’ of the International Clay Conference 2017.

Guest Associate Editor: S. Potel

References

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