Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T10:26:52.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Compositional Variation in Component Layers in Natural Illite/Smectite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

B. Velde
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géologie, ER 224 C.N.R.S., Ecole Normale Supérieure 46 rue d'Ulm, 75230 Paris, France
A. M. Brusewitz
Affiliation:
Sveriges Geologiska Undersokning, Uppsala 75128, Sweden
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

Published chemical data for suites of mixed-layer minerals from diagenetic sedimentary rocks, hydrothermally altered tufts, and a metasomatic bentonite bed indicate that the layer charge and composition of the different components of illite/smectite (I/S) differ from one geological environment to another. It appears that the composition of the elemental smectite and illite layers in the I/S is more or less constant for samples within each geologic setting. In the examples considered, the smectite layers are predominantly montmorillonitic in character (i.e., the charge is in the octahedral site), whereas the illite layers show different types of charge sites, depending upon the suite studied. Illite layers appear to have about the same charge in all three suites studied, slightly more than 0.7 per O10(OH)2 unit, whereas the smectite layers in the different suites range in charge from about 0.3 to 0.7 per O10(OH)2 unit. Cation-exchange capacities reflect these differences in charge, although not ideally. The differences in the composition of the component layers in each geologic suite of mixed-layer clays are probably due either to differences in the bulk chemistry of the rocks in the different suites or to differences in intensive variables, such as temperature and pressure, of the regime under which they have formed.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1986, The Clay Minerals Society