Mineral Identification in Soils

All the techniques to identify soil minerals have difficulty coping with the heterogeneity of soils and with coatings of organic and weathered materials on soil particles, and have trouble detecting small amounts of a component in a veiy large 

FIGURE 5.14. X-ray reflection from repeating mineral planes. For reinforcement, CP+ PE = 2d sin 0 = r)X, so that emerging radiation is in phase. 

Soil Science Society of America Spec. Publ. 55, Madison, WI. 

Putnis, A. 1992, Introduction to Mineral Sciences, Cambridge University Press, New York. 

Distinguish between primary and secondary minerals, and give examples of each. Which minerals are more important in determining soil properties  

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