Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T17:38:56.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Hydrothermal Transformation Of Sodium And Potassium Smectite Into Mixed-Layer Clay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Dennis Eberl  and
John Hower
Dennis Eberl
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, U.S.A.
John Hower
Affiliation:
Division of Earth Sciences, Geochemistry Program, National Science Foundation, Washington D.C. 20550, U.S.A.
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.

The transformation of sodium and potassium smectite into mixed-layer clay was followed in hydrothermal kinetic experiments. Glasses of beidellite composition and the Wyoming bentonite were used as starting materials. Temperatures ranged between 260 and 490°C at 2 kbar pressure, and run times ranged between 6 hr and 266 days.

The course of the reactions was found to be strongly affected by interlayer chemistry. When potassium was the interlayer cation, increasing reaction produced the series: randomly interstratified illite/smectite-ordered interstratified illite/smectite-illite. This sequence is equivalent to that formed in shales during burial diagenesis. With interlayer sodium and temperatures above 300°C, an aluminous beidellite (Black Jack analog)-rectorite-paragonite series was realized. The difference between these two diagenetic families is discussed. Below 300°C, sodium beidellite formed randomly interstratified mixed-layer clay much like potassium beidellite, except that a higher layer charge was required to produce sodium mica-like layers. The higher charge resulted from sodium's higher hydration energy. The difference in hydration energy between potassium and sodium may account for the fixation of potassium rather than sodium in illite during burial diagenesis.

The appearance of ordered interlayering in mixed-layer phases is also related to interlayer chemistry. Ordering formed in sodium clays at high expandabilities, whereas it never appeared in the potassium clays above approximately 35% expandable. The appearance of ordering may be partly related to the polarizing power of the mica-like layers.

Phase diagrams, constructed from the kinetic experiments and from the composition and occurrence of natural clays, are presented for the systems paragonite and muscovite-2 quartz-kaolinite-excess water. This study also reports the first synthesis of a Kalkberg-type mixed-layer clay.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , June 1977 , pp. 215 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Clay Minerals Society 1977

References

Bannister, F. A. (1943) Brammallite (sodium illite), a new mineral from Llandebie, South Wales. Minerałog. Mag. 26, 304–307.Google Scholar
Brindley, G. W. (1956) Allevardite, a swelling double-layer mica mineral. Am. Miner. 41, 91–103.Google Scholar
Brown, G. (1961) The X-ray Identification and Crystal Structure of Clay Minerals, Mineral. Soc., London, p. 544.Google Scholar
Brown, G. and Weir, A. H. (1963a) The identity of rectorite and allevardite. Int. Clay Conf. Proc. 1, Stockholm, 27–35.Google Scholar
Brown, G. and Weir, A. H. (1963b) An addition to the paper, The identity of rectorite and allevardite. Int. Clay Conf. Proc. 2, Stockholm, 87–90.Google Scholar
Eberl, D. and Hower, J. (1975) Kaolinite synthesis: the role of the Si/Al and (alkali)/(H+) ratio in hydrothermal systems. Clays and Clay Minerals 23, 301–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberl, D. and Hower, J. (1976) The kinetics of illite formation. Bull Geol. Soc. Am. 87, 1326–1330.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eslinger, E. V. and Savin, S. (1973) Mineralogy and oxygen isotope geochemistry of the hydrothermally altered rocks of the Ohaki–Broadlands, New Zealand geothermal area. Am. J. Sci. 273, 240–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foscolos, A. E. and Kodama, H. (1974) Diagenesis of clay minerals from lower Cretaceous shales of northeastern British Columbia. Clays and Clay Minerals 22, 319–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giese, R. F. Jr. (1974) The effect of hydroxyl orientation on the interlayer bonding in di- and trioctahedral micas (abstr.). 23rd Ann. Clay Mineral Conf., Cleveland.Google Scholar
Greene-Kelley, R. (1955) Dehydration of montmorillonite minerals. Mineralog. Mag. 30, 604–615.Google Scholar
Grim, R. E. (1968) Clay Mineralogy, McGraw Hill, New York. 576 pp.Google Scholar
Henderson, G. V. (1971) The origin of pyrophyllite and rectorite in shales of north central Utah: Clays and Clay Minerals 19, 239–246.Google Scholar
Hower, J. and Mowatt, T. C. (1966) Mineralogy of the illite–illite/montmorillomte group. Am. Miner. 51, 821–854.Google Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E. V., Hower, M. E. and Perry, E. A. (1976) The mechanism of burial metamorphism of argillaceous sediments: 1. Mineralogical and chemical evidence. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am. 87, 725–737.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luth, W. C. and Ingamells, C. O. (1965) Gel preparation of starting materials for hydrothermal experimentation. Am. Miner. 50, 255–260.Google Scholar
MacEwan, D. M. C. (1961) The montmorillonite minerals (montmorillonoids). In, The X-ray Identification and Crystal Structure of Clay Minerals, Brown, G., ed., Mineral. Soc., London, Ch. 4.Google Scholar
Millot, G. (1970) The Geology of Clays. Springer-Verlag, New York, 429 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, E. and Hower, J. (1970) Burial diagenesis in Gulf Coast pelitic sediments. Clays and Clay Minerals 18, 165–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, R. C. Jr. and Hower, J. (1970) The nature of interlayering in mixed-layer illite–montmorillonites. Clays and Clay Minerals 18, 25–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawhney, B. L. (1967) Interstratification in vermiculites. Clays and Clay Minerals 15, 75–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, L. G. (1969) Lithium and potassium absorption, dehydroxylation temperature, and structural water content of aluminous smectites. Clays and Clay Minerals, 17, 115–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shainberg, I. and Kemper, W. D. (1966) Hydration status of absorbed cations. Am. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. 30, 707–713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, G. R. and Hower, J. (1975) The mineralogy of glauconite. Clays and Clay Minerals 23, 289–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velde, B. (1969) The compositional join muscovite–pyrophyllite at moderate pressures and temperatures. Bull. Soc. fr. Minér. Cristallogr. 92, 360–368.Google Scholar
Weir, A. H. and Greene-Kelley, R. (1962) Beidellite. Am. Miner. 47, 137–146.Google Scholar
Weaver, C. E., Beck, K. C., and Pollard, C. O. (1971) Clay water diagenesis during burial: how mud becomes gneiss. Geol. Soc. Am. Special Paper 134, 1–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar