Weathering illite

Most of the chlorite-like material formed in soils is dioctahedral rather than trioctahedral. In the process of weathering, illite and muscovite are stripped of their potassium and water enters between the layers. In these minerals and in montmoril-lonites and vermiculites, hydroxides are precipitated in the interlayer positions to form a chlorite-like mineral (Rich and Obenshain, 1955 Klages and White, 1957 Brydon et al., 1961 Jackson, 1963 Quigley and Martin, 1963 Rich, 1968). Al(OH)3 and Fe(OH)3 are likely to be precipitated in an acid to mildly basic environments and Mg(OH)2 in a basic environment. The gibbsite sheets in the soil chlorites are seldom complete and the material resembles a mixed-layer chlorite-vermiculite. The gibbsite may occur between some layers and not between others or may occur as islands separated by water molecules. 

Sorption depends on Sorption Sites. The sorption of alkaline and earth-alkaline cations on expandable three layer clays - smectites (montmorillonites) - can usually be interpreted as stoichiometric exchange of interlayer ions. Heavy metals however are sorbed by surface complex formation to the OH-functional groups of the outer surface (the so-called broken bonds). The non-swellable three-layer silicates, micas such as illite, can usually not exchange their interlayer ions but the outside of these minerals and the weathered crystal edges ("frayed edges") participate in ion exchange reactions. 

There are no unequivocal weathering reactions for the silicate minerals. Depending on the nature of parent rocks and hydraulic regimes, various secondary minerals like gibbsite, kaolinite, smectites, and illites are formed as reaction products. Some important dissolution processes of silicates are given, for example, by the following reactions ... 

The production of illite from chemical weathering occurs at all latitudes. It dominates the clay mineral assemblage in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean, particularly at 40° reflecting aeolian transport by the westerlies (Figure 14.11). In the southern hemisphere, the input of illite by the westerlies is diluted by a large input of authigenic montmorillonite in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans and in the South Atlantic by a large input of kaolinite. 

Ca (aq), Mg (aq), and HCOjCaq). Silicate weathering is an incongruent process. The most important of these reactions involves the weathering of the feldspar minerals, ortho-clase, albite, and anorthite. The dissolved products are K (aq), Na (aq), and Ca (aq), and the solid products are the clay minerals, illite, kaolinite, and montmorillonite. The weathering of kaolinite to gibbsite and the partial dissolution of quartz and chert also produces some DSi,... 

Si, Fe and Fe is variable. Illite also appears to be the early product of weathering in cycles of intense alteration or one of the stable products under intermediate conditions (Jackson, 1959). It is apparently stable, or unaffected by transport in rivers for relatively short periods of time (Hurley, et al., 1961) but does change somewhat in the laboratory when in contact with sea water (Carroll and Starkey, 1960) it has been reported to be converted to chlorite or expandable minerals upon marine sedimentation (Powers, 1959). However, Weaver (1959) claims that much sedimentary illite is "reconstituted" mica which was degraded to montmorillonite by weathering processes. It is evident that a certain and usually minor portion of illite found in sedimentary rocks is of detrital origin (Velde and Hower, 1963) whether reconstituted or not. 

Thus detrital sediments can contain illite of at least four origins material crystallized during weathering reconstituted degraded mica, detrital mica formed at high temperatures and of course unaffected detrital illite from sedimentary rocks. 

Normal aluminous illite common in pelitic sediments, altered volcanic ash beds, hydrothermal alterations of acidic rocks and weathering products of these rocks. 

Tomita, et al., 1970 Meilhac and Tardy, 1970.) The prevalence of montmorillonites, in river sediments and those studied as deep-sea cores in the numerous JOIDES reports leads one to believe that montmorillonite is a very common weathering product. Certainly a portion of it is derived from degraded micas but if one considers that the next most common sedimentary mineral is illite, one is forced to conclude that either continental rocks are for the major part made of micas or that many other minerals are transformed into montmorillonite during the weathering process. 

Figure 47. Displacements in composition-temperature space are indicated for the weathering process and diagenesis or epimetamorphism. The simplified system muscovite-pyrophyllite is used to represent these processes in acidic or argillaceous rocks and sediments. I = mica or illite ...

The initial increase in hydrostatic pressure in a sedimentary basin appears not to change mineral stabilities from those of the weathering environment. The formation of potassic, iron-rich micas such as ferric illite and glauconite both in lacustrine and shallow ocean basins demonstrates their stability at low pressures and temperatures. The same is true of the 7 8 chlorite chamosite or berthierine. Most likely the chemical variables of pH, Eh and the activity of the various ions in solution are predominant in silicate phase equilibria in sedimentary environments. 

Chamberlain et al. (1999) measured the oxygen isotope composition of authigenic kaolinite, smectite and illite in weathered horizons from intermontane basins on the east side of the Southern Alps. Neither smectite nor illite produced useful results, as reflected in the... 

Trioctahedral illites have been reported by Walker (1950) and Weiss et al.(1956). Walker s analysis, which he considers only a rough approximation, is given in Table XI. The clay biotite occurs in a Scottish soil and is believed to be authigenic however, it weathers so easily to vermiculite that unweathered material is difficult to find. Due to its instability, it is not likely that much clay-sized biotite exists although trioctahedral biotite-like layers may occur interlayered with dioctahedral illite layers. Such interlayering has been reported by Bassett (1959). 

Some of the lMd material (either illite or mixed-layer illite-montmorillonite) presumably formed authigenically on the sea bottom or on land from the weathering of K-feldspars however, much of it was formed after burial. Studies of Tertiary, Cretaceous, and Pennsylvanian thick shale sections (Weaver, 1961b) indicate that little lMd illite was formed at the time of deposition. These shales and many others contain an abundance of expanded 2 1 dioctahedral clays with a lMd structure, some of which is detrital and some of which formed by the alteration of volcanic material on the sea floor. With burial the percentage of contracted 10A layers systematically increases. 

Radoslovich (1963b) has shown that when Na+ ions replace K+ ions in muscovite, the dimension of the b-axis is increased. This requires additional flattening and rotation of the silica and alumina tetrahedra. This suggests that the amount of Na+ that can be tolerated by the mica structure increases with temperature the increased thermal motions would allow the structure to accommodate local strains more readily. Thus, little Na+ would be expected in low-temperature illites. In addition, Na would leach out more readily than the K and any illite that had been through the weathering stage would not retain much of its Na. 

Vermiculite and vermiculite layers interstratified with mica and chlorite layers are quite common in soils where weathering is not overly aggressive. (A few references are Walker, 1949 Brown, 1953 Van der Marel, 1954 Hathaway, 1955 Droste, 1956 Rich, 1958 Weaver, 1958 Gjems, 1963 Millot and Camez, 1963 Barshad and Kishk, 1969.) Most of these clays are formed by the removal of K from the biotite, muscovite and illite and the brucite sheet from chlorite. This is accompanied by the oxidation of much of the iron in the 2 1 layer. Walker (1949) has described a trioctahedral soil vermiculite from Scotland formed from biotite however, most of the described samples are dioctahedral. Biotite and chlorite with a relatively high iron content weather more easily than the related iron-poor dioctahedral 2 1 clays and under similar weathering conditions are more apt to alter to a 1 1 clay or possibly assume a dioctahedral structure. 

Quite often Al, Fe, and Mg hydroxides partially fill the interlayer position of the derived vermiculites and decrease their exchange capacity and their ability to contract completely to 10 A when heated or when treated with a potassium solution. This material can usually be removed by treating the clay with a solution of sodium citrate (Tamura,1958). As the content of hydroxy interlayer material increases, the expandable clay tends to assume the character of a chlorite. Thus, in the weathering of a mica or illite it is not uncommon to form discrete vermiculite-like, beidellite-like, monf-morillonite-like and chlorite-like layers. These various layers can occur as discrete packets or interstratified in a wide variety of proportions. 

Much of the derived expanded clay, even that which resembles montmorillonite (holds two layers of ethylene glycol), will contract to 10 A when exposed to a potassium solution. Weaver (1958) has shown that these clays can obtain sufficient potassium from sea water and readily contract to 10 A. Vermiculite and mixed-layer biotite-vermiculites are rare in marine sedimentary rocks. Weaver (1958) was unable to find any expandable clays in marine sediments that would contract to 10 A when treated with potassium. A few continental shales contained expanded clays that would contract to 10A when saturated with potassium. Most vermiculites derived from micas and illites have high enough charge so that when deposited in sea water they extract potassium and eventually revert to micas and illites. Some layers may be weathered to such an extent that they do not have sufficient charge to afford contraction and mixed-layer illite-montmorillonites form. 

The most common type of mixed-layer clay is composed of expanded, waterbearing layers and contracted, non-water-bearing layers (i.e., illite-montmorillonite, chlorite-vermiculite, chloritc-montmorillonite). Most of these clays form by the partial leaching of K or Mg (OH)2 from between illite or chlorite layers and by the incomplete adsorption of K or Mg(OH)2 on montmorillonite- or vermiculite-like layers. They most commonly form during weathering or after burial but are frequently of hydro-thermal origin. 

Mixed-layer clays form by the alteration of pre-existing micas and illites, by hydrothermal action, by the alteration of volcanic glass, and by diagenetic alteration of montmorillonite. During continental weathering K is leached from micas and illites and mixed-layer clays are formed. When these clays are carried to the sea, they may adsorb K and revert partially or entirely to illite. If they remain in a continental environment where K may not be available, the expanded layers can persist until K... 

Many of these weathered micas and illites are completely leached of K and have the swelling characteristics of a montmorillonite. This material is usually leached to such an extent that the layer charge of some of the layers is sufficiently lowered so that they will no longer contract to 10 A. When these clays are exposed to sea water or K from any source, only a portion of their layers will contract and a mixed-layer clay is formed. 

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