Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-20T06:28:34.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adjustment of Clays to Chemical Change and the Concept of the Equivalence Level

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Maurice C. Powers
Maurice C. Powers*
Affiliation:
Shell Oil Company, Houston, Texas, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Further x-ray and chemical work on suspended sediment samples and cored samples from the James River and its estuary support earlier proposals by the author. A chlorite-like clay is forming from weathered illite through a mixed-layer illite—vermiculite-chlorite stage, and some illite is seemingly regenerated to a better illite by potassium fixation.

Chemical analyses of interstitial water, hydrochloric acid-leachate, and fused samples offer explanations regarding the chemical changes occurring in clays as composition of the environment changes.

Magnesium is adsorbed by clays to a far greater degree than potassium in the marine and brackish environment.

The variance between clays found in Recent and ancient sediments is related to and explained by the concept of the equivalence level. It is suggested that K+ is adsorbed preferentially to Mg2+ by clays when they have been buried to a depth that is greater than that of the Mg2+ — K+ — equivalence level; above this level Mg2+ is preferentially adsorbed by the clays.

The trifold nature of clay minerals in terms of their origin and distribution is briefly discussed.

Type
Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals (National Conference on Clays and Clay Minerals) , Volume 6 , February 1957 , pp. 309 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Clay Minerals Society 1957

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradley, W. F. (1955) Structural irregularities in hydrous magnesium silicates: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 395, pp. 94–102.Google Scholar
Chilingar, G. V. (1957) Evolution of chemical composition of clays of the Russian platform: by A. P. Vinogradov and A. B. Ronov, Geokhimi ja, reviewed in Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, v. 12, pp. 172–175.Google Scholar
Foster, M. D. (1951) The importance of exchangeable magnesium and cation-exchange capacity in the study of montmorillonitic clays: Amer. Minerol., v. 36, pp. 717–730.Google Scholar
Foster, M. D. (1953) Geochemical studies of olay minerals: II—Relation “between ionic substitution and swelling in montmorillonites: Amer. Minerei., v. 38, pp. 994–1006.Google Scholar
Foster, M. D. (1954) The relation between “ illite,” beidellite and montmorillonite: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 327, pp. 386–397.Google Scholar
Foster, M. D. (1955) The relation between composition and swelling in clays: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 395, pp. 205–220.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E. (1953) Clay Mineralogy; McGraw-Hill, New York, 384 pp.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E. and Cuthbert, F. L. (1945) Some clay-water properties of certain clay minerals: J. Amer. Geram. Soc., v. 28, pp. 90–95.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E. and Johns, W. D. (1954) Clay mineral investigation of sediments in the northern Gulf of Mexico: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 327, p. 81–103.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E. and Rowland, R. A. (1942) Differential thermal analysis of clay minerals and other hydrous materials. Part 2: Amer. Mineral., v. 27, p. 801–818.Google Scholar
Hendricks, S. B., Nelson, R. A. and Alexander, L. T. (1940) Hydration mechanism of the clay mineral montmorillonite saturated with various ions: J. Amer. Ghem. Soc., v. 62, pp. 1457–1464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, U. and Endell, J. (1939) Die Abhängigkeit des Kationenaustausches und der Quellung bei Montmorillonit von der Vorerhitzung: Ver. deut. Chemiker Beihefte, v. 35, p. 10.Google Scholar
Kelley, W. P. (1948) Cation Exchange in Soils: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 144 pp.Google Scholar
Mitchell, R. L. (1955) Trace elements: in Chemistry of the Soil, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, Ch. 9, pp. 253–286.Google Scholar
Murray, H. H. and Sayyab, A. S. (1955) Clay mineral studies of some Recent marine sediments off the North Carolina coast: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.-Natl. Res. Council, pub. 395, p. 430–441.Google Scholar
Powers, M. C. (1954) Clay diagenesis in the Chesapeake Bay area: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 327, pp. 68–80.Google Scholar
Ross, C. S. and Hendricks, S. B. (1945) Minerals of the montmorillonite group: their origin, and relation to soils and clays: U.S. Geol. Survey, Professional Paper 205-B, p. 23–79.Google Scholar
White, W. A. (1955) Water sorption properties of homoionie montmorillonite: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.—Natl. Res. Council, pub. 395, pp. 186–204.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, U. G. and Jeffrey, L. M. (1955), Peptization resistance of selected samples of kaolinitic, montmorillonitic and illitic clay materials: in Clays and Clay Minerals, Natl. Acad. Sci.-Natl. Res. Council, pub. 395, pp. 260–281.Google Scholar
Wiegner, Georg (1935) Ionenumtausch und Struktur: Trans. Third International Congress Soil Sci., Oxford, England, v. 1, p. 5–28.Google Scholar
Wiegner, Georg and Jenny, Hans (1927) Ueber Basenaustausch an Permutiten (Kationenumtausch an Eugelen): Kolloid-Zeits., v. 42, pp. 268–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiklander, L. (1955) Cation and anion exchange phenomena: in Chemistry of the Soil: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, Ch. 4, pp. 107–148.Google Scholar