Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T16:33:22.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Clay minerals in the agricultural surface soils in the Central United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

B. Velde*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géologie, CNRS UMR 8538 Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231, ParisFrance
*

Abstract

A survey of the clay fraction at the surface of 86 loam and silt loam agricultural soils from the Central United States was undertaken to observe the possible influences of climate and parent material (dominantly phyllosilicates in this study) on the clay mineralogy of the upper portions of the soils, for the most part in Mollisol–Alfisol order soils.

Decomposed X-ray diffraction spectra show that the most abundant clay minerals are two disordered illite-smectite (I-S) minerals, one with ∼50% smectite layers and another, less abundant, disordered I-S phase with 20% smectite. These minerals usually co-exist in the same samples. The charge site in both of these I-S minerals is both beidellitic and montmorillonitic in the expanding layers. A relatively large proportion of these smectite layers (up to 20%) are of high charge.

There seems to be a convergence in mineralogy towards mixed-layer phases formed under a range of mid-Continent climates from a range of phyllosilicate parent materials.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2001

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

Akin, W.A. (1991) Global Patterns: Climate, Vegetation and Soils. University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
American Associati on of Petroleum Geologi sts Geological Highway Maps (1979) Northern Great Plains, Southeastern Region, Northern Rocky Mountain Region, Mid-Continent Region, Texas. AAPG.Google Scholar
Badraoui, M., Bloom, P.R. & Rust, R.H. (1987) Occurrence of high charge beidellite in Vertic Haplaquoll of Northwestern Minnesota. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 51, 813–818.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanco del, M. & Sanchez, L.F. (1995) Characterization of the silt and clay fractions in loess soils of the southwest Pampa of Argentina. Turrialba, 45, 76–84.Google Scholar
Boles, J.R. & Franks, S.G. (1979) Clay diagenesis in Wilcox sandst ones of southwester n Texas: Implications of smectite diagenesis on sandstone sedimentation. J. Sed. Petrol. 49, 55–70.Google Scholar
Dugan, J.T., Hobbs, R.D. & Ihm, L.A. (1990) Hydrologic characteristics of soils in the high plains, Northern great plains, and Central Texas carbonates, Regional aquifer systems, Atlas HA-714. U.S. Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Fehrenbacher, J.B., White, J.L., Beavers, A.H. & Jones, R.L. (1965) Loess composition in Southeastern Illinois and Southwestern Indiana. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 29, 572–579.Google Scholar
Folkoff, M.E. & Meentmeyer, V. (1985) Climate control of assemblages of secondary clay minerals in A horizons of U.S. soils. Earth Sci. Processes Landforms, 10, 621–633.Google Scholar
Freed, R.L. & Peacor, D.R. (1989) Geopressured shale and sealing effect of smectite to illite transition. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull. 73, 1223–1232.Google Scholar
Frye, J.C., Glass, H.D. & William, H.B. (1962) Stratigraphy and mineralogy of the Wisconsinan loesses of Illinois. Ill. State Geol. Surv. Circ. 334.Google Scholar
Frye, J.C., Glass, H.D. & Willman, H.B. (1968) Mineral zonation of Woodfordian loesses of Illinois. Ill. State Geol. Surv. Circ. 427.Google Scholar
Gharrabi, M., Velde, B. & Sagon, J.-P. (1998) Clay mineral evolution in the Illinois basin and its cause. Clay Miner. 30, 353–364.Google Scholar
Gill, J.D., West, M.W., Noe, D.C., Olsen, H.W. & McCarty, D.K. (1996) Geologic control of severe expansive clay damage to a subdivision in the Pierre Shale, southwest Denver and metropolitan area, Colorado. Clays Clay Miner. 44, 530–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, H.D., Frye, J.C. & Willmam, H.B. (1968) Clay mineral, composition, a source indicator of Midwest Loess, Quaternary of Illinois. Univ. Ill. Coll. Agri. Spec. Publ. 14, 35–44.Google Scholar
Green-Kelly, R. (1953) Irreversible dehydration in montmorillonite. Clay Miner. Bull. 2, 52–56.Google Scholar
Hillier, S. (1995) Erosion, sedimentation and sedimentary origin of clays. Pp. 162–214 in: Origin and Mineralogy of Clays (Velde, B., editor). Springer- Verlag, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Inoue, A., Bouchet, A., Velde, B. & Meunier, A. (1989) Convenient technique for estimating smectite layer percentages in randomly interstratified illite/smectite minerals. Clays Clay Miner. 37, 227–234.Google Scholar
Jennings, S. & Thompson, G.R. (1986) Diagenesis of Plio-Pleistocene sediments of the Colodrado River delta, southern California. J. Sed. Pet. 56, 89–98.Google Scholar
Kodama, H. & Brydon, J.E. (1965) Interstratified montmorillonite-mica clays from subsoils of the prairie Provinces, Western Canada. Pp. 151–173 in: Proc. 13th Nat. Clay Conf. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Kuzila, M.S. & Lewis, D.T. (1993) Properties and genesis of loessial soil across a South-Central Nebraska basin. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 57, 155–161.Google Scholar
Laird, D.A., Barak, P., Nater, E.A. & Dowdy, R.H. (1991) Chemistry of smectitic illitic phases in interstratified soil smectite. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 55, 1499–1504.Google Scholar
Lanson, B. & Besson, G. (1992) Characterization of the end of smectite-to-illite transformation: decomposition of the X-ray patterns. Clays Clay Miner. 40, 40–52.Google Scholar
Lanson, B. (1997) Decomposition of experimental X-ray diffraction patterns (profile fitting): A convenient way to study clay minerals. Clays Clay Miner. 45, 132–146.Google Scholar
Lanson, B., Velde, B. & Meunier, A. (1998) Late stage diagenesis of illitic clay minerals as seen by decompos ition of X-ray diffract ion patterns: Contrasted behaviors of sedimentary basins with different burial histories. Clays Clay Miner. 46, 69–78.Google Scholar
Malla, P.B. & Douglas, L.A. (1987) Layer charge properties of smectites and vermiculites tetrahedral vs. octahedral. Soil Sci. Am. J. 51, 1362–1366.Google Scholar
Moore, D. & Jr.Reynolds, R.C., (1997) X-ray Diffraction and the Identification and Analysis of Clay Minerals, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, UK.Google Scholar
Munn, L.C. (1987) Soil genesis associated with periglacial ice wedge casts, South central Wyoming. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 51, 1000–1004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ransom, M.D., Bigham, J.M., Smeck, N.E. & Jaynes, W.F. (1988) Transitional vermiculite-smectite phases in Aqualfs of Southwestern Ohio. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 52, 873–880.Google Scholar
Jr.Reynolds, R.C., (1985) NEWMOD, a computer program for the calculation of one dimensional patterns of mixed layer clays. JrReynolds, R.C., 8 Brook Rd., Hannover, NH, USA.Google Scholar
Righi, D., Velde, B. & Meunier, A. (1995a) Clay stability in clay-dominated soil systems. Clay Miner. 30, 45–54.Google Scholar
Righi, D., Terrible, F. & Petit, D. (1995b) Low-charge to high-charge beidellite conversion in a Vertisol from South Italy. Clay Clay Miner. 43, 495–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, L.G. (1964) Quantitative interpretation of mineralogical composition from X-ray and chemical data for the Pierre Shale. U.S. Geological Survey Prof. Paper, 391-C.Google Scholar
University Arkansas Division of Agriculture (1982) General Soil Map of the State of Arkansas.Google Scholar
University of Minnesota Experimental Station (1975) Soils Map. Soils Association, Minnesota, USA.Google Scholar
Velde, B. & Iijima, A. (1988) Comparison of clay and zeolite mineral occurrences in Neogene Age sediments of several deep wells. Clays Clay Miner. 36, 337–342.Google Scholar
Velde, B. & Vasseur, G. (1992) Estimation of the diagenetic smectite to illite transformation in timetemperature space. Am. Miner. 34, 651–976.Google Scholar
Weaver, C.E. (1959) The clay petrology of sediments. Clays Clay Miner. 6, 154–187.Google Scholar
Willman, H.B., Glass, H.D. & Frye, J.C. (1966) Mineralogy of glacial tills and their weathering profiles in Illinois, part II Weathering profiles. Ill. State Geol. Surv. Circ. 400.Google Scholar
Willman, H.B. & Frye, J.C. (1970) Loess thickness in Illinois. Ill. State Geol. Surv. Bull. 94.Google Scholar
Wilson, M.J. (1987) Soil smectites and related interstratified minerals: recent developments. Proc. Int. Clay Conf. Denver, 167–173.Google Scholar