Components, rocks, soil characteristics

Although gibbsite and kaolinite are important in quantity in some soils and hydrothermal deposits, they have diminishing importance in argillaceous sediments and sedimentary rocks because of their peripheral chemical position. They form the limits of any chemical framework of a clay mineral assemblage and thus rarely become functionally involved in critical clay mineral reactions. This is especially true of systems where most chemical components are inert or extensive variables of the system. More important or characteristic relations will be observed in minerals with more chemical variability which respond readily to minor changes in the thermodynamic parameters of the system in which they are found. However, as the number of chemical components which are intensive variables (perfectly mobile components) increases the aluminous phases become more important because alumina is poorly soluble in aqueous solution, and becomes the inert component and the only extensive variable. 

The book consists of four chapters. The first one deals with the individual components of the studied systems the solid, the solution, and the interface. Solid means rocks and soils, namely, the main mineral and other solid components. In order that the solid/liquid interactions become possible, these must be located in the Earth s crust where groundwater is present. The liquid phase refers to soil solutions and groundwater, and also any solutions that are part of laboratory experiments studying interfacial properties with the objective of understanding the principles behind the reactions. In Chapter 1, the characteristics and thermodynamics of the... 

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