Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:01:33.270Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Unusually Interlayered Clay Mineral from the Eluvial Horizon of a Humus-Iron Podzol

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

A. R. Fraser
Affiliation:
Division of Soils and Soil Microbiology, The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB9 2QJ, UK

Abstract

The <2 µm fraction from the eluvial horizon of a humus-iron podzol is composed predominantly of a dioctahedral mineral with a basal spacing of 14.7 Å which contracts to 13.7 Å on solvation with glycol, and to 11.4 Å on heating to 300°C. The interlayer region is partially filled with an amorphous organo-Fe-Al complex which is very unstable and is affected by every treatment employed, even homoionic cation saturation. The mineral has a mica-like morphology, contains 3.4% non-exchangeable K2O and is considered to be an interstratified mica-vermiculite formed by the weathering of mica. The contraction of the basal spacing with glycol is probably due to water being removed from the interlayer region of the vermiculite component, leaving only the natural organo-complex in the interlayer; alternatively, the contraction may be more apparent than real, resulting from an interstratification effect. Treatment with H2O2 results in partial expansion with glycol.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

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

Bain, D.C., Mellor, A. & Wilson, M.J. (1990) Nature and origin of an aluminous vermiculitic weathering product in acid soils from upland catchments in Scotland. Clay Miner. 25, 467475.Google Scholar
Bain, D.C., Mellor, A., Robertson-Rintoul M.S.E. & Buckland, S.T. (1993) Variations in weathering processes and rates with time in a chronosequence of soils from Glen Feshie, Scotland. Geoderm. 57, 275293.Google Scholar
Barnhisel, R.I. & Bertsch, P.M. (1989) Chlorites and hydroxy-interlayered vermiculite and smectite. Pp. 729788 in: Minerals in Soil Environments (J.B. Dixon & S.B. Weed, editors). Soil Sci. Soc. Am.,Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Brown, G. (1953) The dioctahedral analogue of vermiculite. Clay Miner. Bull.. 2, 6469.Google Scholar
Douglas, L.S. (1989) Vermiculites. Pp. 635674 in: Minerals in Soil Environments (J.B, Dixon & S.B. Weed, editors). Soil Sci. Soc. Am., Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Farmer, V.C., Russell, J.D. & Smith B.F.L. (1983) Extraction of inorganic forms of translocated Al, Fe and, Si from a podzol, Bs horizon. /. Soil Sci.. 34, 571576.Google Scholar
MacEwan, D.M.C. (1950) Some notes on the recording and interpretation of X-ray diagrams of soil clays. J. Soil Sci.. 1, 90103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacEwan, D.M.C. & Wilson, M.J. (1980) Interlayer and intercalation complexes of clay minerals. Pp. 197248 in: Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals and their X-ray Identification (G.W. Brindley & G. Brown, editors). Mineralogical Society, London.Google Scholar
McKeague, J.A. & Day, J.H. (1966) Dithionite and oxalate extractable, Fe, and, Al as aids in differentiating various classes of soils. Can. J. Soil Sci.. 46, 1322.Google Scholar
Norrish, K. & Hutton, J.T. (1969) An accurate X-ray spectrographic method for the analysis of a wide range of geological samples. Geochim. Cosmochim. Act.. 33, 431453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rich, C.I. & Obenshain, S.S. (1955) Chemical and clay mineral properties of a red-yellow podzolic soil derived from muscovite schist. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc.. 19, 334339.Google Scholar
Soil Survey of Scotland (1984) Organisation and Methods: Soil and Land Capability for Agriculture 1-250,000 Soil Survey. Macaulay Institute for Soil Research, Aberdeen.Google Scholar
Walker, G.F. (1961) Vermiculite minerals. Pp. 297324 in: The X-ray Identification and Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals (G.W. Brindley & G. Brown, editors). Mineralogical Society, London.Google Scholar
Wilson, M.J. (1987) X-ray powder diffraction methods. Pp. 2698 in: A Handbook of Determinative Methods in Clay Mineralogy (M.J. Wilson, editor). Blackie, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Wilson, M.J., Bain, D.C. & DuthieD.M.L. (1984) The soil clays of Great Britain: II. Scotland. Clay Miner.. 19, 709735.Google Scholar