Tornando corno base las conclusiones obtenidas en trabajos anteriores sobre las variables significativas en la genesis de gibsita bajo clima templado, se han seleccionado cinco perfiles de alteration de granitos. En esas condiciones los datos termodinàmicos indican que este mineral no puede originarse nunca por un proceso de hidrólisis tipicamente inorgànica. El mecanismo propuesto, complejación del aluminio con àcidos fùlvicos y posterior evolución a gibsita, se muestra corno el mas probable. Se sugiere también que està gibsita puede combinarse con silice para dar lugar a caolinita. Ambos minerales, pues, tienen un posible origen esencialmente orgànico. Este hecho explica la vinculación caolinita y/o gibsita con determinados tipos de vegetación.

Palygorskite, associated with aragonite, occurs as a fracture filling in a dunite body that has been intruded by felsic pegmatites. The palygorskite formed by direct precipitation from solutions given off by the pegmatite. Aluminium, calcium and silicon were provided by the pegmatite solutions while magnesium was derived from the serpentinization of the dunite along the host fractures. No direct replacement took place.

Partial chemical and X-ray analyses of specimens taken serially from three different rock types from the St. Austell granite show that potash feldspar is hydrothermally altered to a micaceous mineral. Sodic plagioclase alters to mica, montmorillonite and kaolinite. Furthermore, in the latter case the micaceous mineral and montmorillonite are intermediate products between feldspar and kaolinite. It is believed that the level of H+ ion activity in the altering solutions controlled the removal of alkalis, Al2O3 and SiO2 so as to leave appropriate concentrations of these constituents to re-form as mica or montmorillonite. Further alteration of a similar kind produced kaolinite.

The behaviour of iron in the natural weathering of hornblende in a sedentary soil profile has been investigated using the Mòssbauer effect. The spectra from samples at different stages of weathering show appreciable differences which can be accounted for if ferrous iron is lost preferentially from M(3) sites where it is coordinated to hydroxyl groups in a trans arrangement. Unlike biotite the proportion of ferric iron does not increase during weathering and this illustrates the difficulty with which the ferrous iron is oxidized in the amphibole structure.

Samples were collected from a 11·4 m deep weathered profile of a metamorphic rock. The mineralogy was determined from XRD powder patterns, differential thermal and thermogravimetric analyses with CEC determinations and chemical analyses.

Four stages in a weathering sequence from the profile base towards the surface are as follows : (i) a partially regular trioctahedral chlorite-chlorite mixed layer ; (ii) a random chlorite-vermiculite mixed layer; (iii) a random chlorite-smectite mixed layer, and finally (iv) a smectite. Some chloritic layers are therefore more resistant to chemical weathering than other chloritic layers. This profile indicates that the order of decreasing resistance to chemical weathering is talc > smectite > tremolite.