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Clay Mineral Segregation by Flocculation in the Porters Creek Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Andrew R. Thomas  and
Haydn H. Murray
Andrew R. Thomas
Affiliation:
Texaco, Inc., P.O. Box 60252, New Orleans, Louisiana 70160
Haydn H. Murray
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47424
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Abstract

The Porters Creek Formation is mined as an absorbent clay in Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. The absorptive properties of the Porters Creek Formation are due to the high content of smectite which constitutes >50% of the minerals present. Analyses of 220 samples of the Porters Creek collected in Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee indicate that the smectite content is highest on the western side of the Mississippi embayment and that the kaolinite content is highest on the northeastern side. The major influx of detritral clays appears to have entered the embayment from a large river on the northeast side. A major control of the distribution of clay minerals during the time of Porters Creek deposition was differential flocculation of kaolinite, illite, and smectite, as evidenced by the numerous syneresis cracks on bedding planes in the area of greatest kaolinite content. Estimates of the smectite, illite, and kaolinite contents suggest both horizontal and vertical variations among these clay minerals. In certain localities the oxidation of pyrite has created acid conditions, which apparently were conducive to the formation of authigenic halloysite.

Keywords

FlocculationIlliteKaoliniteSedimentationSmectite
Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , April 1989 , pp. 179 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © 1989, The Clay Minerals Society

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