Fifteen iron oxide accumulations from the bottoms of two Finnish lakes (“lake ores”) were found to contain as much as 50% Fe. Differential X-ray powder diffraction and selective dissolution by oxalate showed that the samples consisted of poorly crystallized goethite and ferrihydrite. The crust ores of one lake had higher ferrihydrite to goethite ratios than the nodular ores of the other lake. The higher ferrihydrite proportion was attributed to a higher rate of Fe2+ supply from the ground water and/or a higher rate of oxidation as a function of water depth and bottom-sediment permeability.

Values of Al-for-Fe substitution of the goethites determined from unit-cell dimensions agreed with those obtained from chemical extraction if the unit-cell volume rather than the c dimension was used. In very small goethite crystals a slight expansion of the a unit-cell dimension is probaby compensated by a corresponding contraction of the c dimension, so that a contraction of the c dimension need not necessarily be caused by Al substitution.

The goethites of the two lakes differed significantly in their Al-for-Fe substitutions and hence in their unit-cell sizes, OH-bending characteristics, dehydroxylation temperatures, dissolution kinetics, and Möss-bauer parameters. The difference in Al substitution (0 vs. 7 mole %) is attributed to the Al-supplying power of the bottom sediments: the silty-clayey sediments in one lake appear to have supplied Al during goethite formation, whereas the gravelly-sandy sediments in the other lake did not. The compositions of the goethites thus reflect their environments of formation.

This work investigates unit cell dimensions, crystal size and specific surface area of aluminous goethite that was progressively dehydroxylated to form hematite. Goethite synthesized from the ferrous system altered to hematite with DTGA maximum increasing from 236° to 273°C for 0 to 30.1 mole % Al-substitution. Unit cell dimensions of goethite and hematite decreased as Al-substitution increased and increased as excess OH increased. The crystallographically equivalent a axis of goethite and c axis of hematite were more sensitive than other axes to the presence of excess structural OH associated with Al-substitution. Specific surface area increased from 147 to 288 m2/g for goethite and from 171 to 230 m2/g for hematite as Al-substitution increased. An increase in specific surface area on heating goethite at temperatures between 200° and 240°C is related to a decrease in the size of coherently diffracting domains of goethite crystals and to the development of pore and structural defects associated with the formation of hematite. The decrease in specific surface area for heating temperatures above 240°C is attributed to the growth of hematite crystals by diffusion.