Origin and Mineralogy of Clays, the first of two volumes, lays the groundwork for a thorough study of clays in the environment. The second volume will deal with environmental interaction. Going from soils to sediments to diagenesis and hydrothermal alteration, the book covers the whole spectrum of clays. The chapters on surface environments are of great relevance in regard to environmental problems in soils, rivers and lake-ocean situations, showing the greatest interaction between living species and the chemicals in their habitat. The book is of interest to scientists and students working on environmental issues.
Here is a comprehensive and up to-do-date presentation of the origins, and properties of clay minerals at the Earth ́s surface. The text reviews the relatively simple laws that govern the chemical or isotopic composition and the crystalline structure of clays, and then discusses their genesis and alteration. Concluding chapters show that clay minerals can form in variety of different environments: meteorites, lavas, subduction zones, among others.
Concluding the trilogy on geological materials in construction, this authoritative volume reviews many uses of clays, ranging from simple fills to sophisticated products. Comprehensive and international coverage is achieved by an expert team, including geologists, engineers and architects. Packed with information prepared for a wide readership, this unique handbook is also copiously illustrated. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Professor Sir Alec Skempton. Various definitions of 'clay' are explored. Clay mineralogy is described, plus the geological formation of clay deposits and their fundamental materials properties. World and British clay deposits are reviewed and explained. New compositional data are provided for clay formations throughout the stratigraphic column. Investigative techniques and interpretation are considered, ranging from site exploration to laboratory assessment of composition and engineering performance. Major civil engineering applications are addressed, including earthworks, earthmoving and specialized roles utilizing clays. Traditional earthen building is included and shown to dominate construction in places. Clay-based construction materials are detailed, including bricks, ceramics and cements. The volume also includes a comprehensive glossary.
As the human population grows from seven billion toward an inevitable nine or 10 billion, the demands on the limited supply of soils will grow and intensify. Soils are essential for the sustenance of almost all plants and animals, including humans, but soils are virtually infinitely variable. Clays are the most reactive and interactive inorganic compounds in soils. Clays in soils often differ from pure clay minerals of geological origin. They provide a template for most of the reactive organic matter in soils. They directly affect plant nutrients, soil temperature and pH, aggregate sizes and strength, porosity and water-holding capacities. This book aims to help improve predictions of important properties of soils through a modern understanding of their highly reactive clay minerals as they are formed and occur in soils worldwide. It examines how clays occur in soils and the role of soil clays in disparate applications including plant nutrition, soil structure, and water-holding capacity, soil quality, soil shrinkage and swelling, carbon sequestration, pollution control and remediation, medicine, forensic investigation, and deciphering human and environmental histories. Features: Provides information on the conditions that lead to the formation of clay minerals in soils Distinguishes soil clays and types of clay minerals Describes clay mineral structures and their origins Describes occurrences and associations of clays in soil Details roles of clays in applications of soils Heavily illustrated with photos, diagrams, and electron micrographs Includes user-friendly description of a new method of identification To know soil clays is to enable their use toward achieving improvements in the management of soils for enhancing their performance in one or more of their three main functions of enabling plant growth, regulating water flow to plants, and buffering environmental changes. This book provides an easily-read and extensively-illustrated description of the nature, formation, identification, occurrence and associations, measurement, reactivities, and applications of clays in soils.
This book provides a comprehensive and critical summary of clay mineral literature that relates to geology and geologic processes, making it useful both as a reference book for geologists and as a text for the specialist.The book encompasses the full scope of clay-shale geology. An introductory chapter provides basic background terminology and classification. This is followed by a relatively long chapter on the structure and composition of the various clay minerals. Chapter 3 provides an introduction to soil formation, chemical weathering, microbial alteration and the pedogenic formation of clay minerals. Chapters 4 and 5 cover the continental and marine transport, and deposition of clays. Both mechanisms and examples are presented, ranging from biodepositional to the nepheloid layer. Chapter 6 reviews data on the low to high temperature formation of clay minerals from marine volcanics, and the growth of authigenic clays in shallow marine, brackish, and evaporite environments. Chapter 7, Diagenesis Metamorphism, covers both burial diagenesis and the processes occurring during the conversion of shale to clay. Chapter 8 discusses the formation of authigenic-diagenetic formation of clays in sandstones. Chapter 9 describes the temperal distribution of clay minerals in North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The clay suites are related to factors such as continental drift, tectonics, climate and environment. The final brief chapter covers compaction, lithification and some general features of shales.The book is liberally sprinkled with x-ray patterns, chemical analyses, and SEM and TEM pictures, in addition to hundreds of examples.
The peculiar characteristics of clays provide it with very interesting adsorption qualities, especially for polar or ionisable molecules. Some of these characteristics include the silicates' sheet structure that makes a large surface area accessible for adsorption; the usually significant surface charge that can be responsible for strong electrostatic interactions; and clays' swelling properties and presence of exchangeable surface cations that facilitate ion-exchange mechanisms. Added to their wide availability and associated low cost, these characteristics have motivated in recent years an increasing interest in utilising natural, processed or chemically-modified clays for the removal of organic contaminants from aqueous solutions. This book discusses the application of clay materials for the removal of organic compounds from contaminated waters. It also discusses several other topics that include time and temperature related behaviour of clays; mechanical treatment of clay minerals; the workability of natural clays and clays in the ceramics industry; recent advances in hydraulic performance of clay liners; and the genesis, properties and industrial applications of bauxitic lithomargic clay.
This book on Applied Clay Mineralogy is comprehensive. It covers the structure, composition, and physical and chemical properties of kaolinite, halloysite, ball clays; bentonites including sodium montmorillonite, calcium montmorillonite, and hectorite; and palygorskite and sepiolite. There is also a short chapter on common clays which are used for making structural clay products and lightweight aggregate. The location and geology of the major clay deposits that are marketed worldwide and regionally include kaolins from the United States, Southwest England, Brazil, and the Czech Republic along with halloysite from New Zealand and ball clays from the US, England, Germany, and Ukraine. Bentonites from the U.S. and Europe are included along with palygorskite and sepiolite from the U.S., China, Senegal, and Spain. The mining and processing of the various clays are described. Extensive discussions of the many applications of the clays are included. The appendices cover the important laboratory tests that are used to identify and evaluate the various types of clay. Many figures are included covering electron micrographs, processing flow sheets, stratigraphy, and location maps. * Provides the structure and composition of clay minerals, as well as their phyisical and chemical properties * Discusses pplications for Kaolin, Bentonite, Palygorskite and Sepiolite * Contains appendixes of laboratory tests and procedures, as well as a test for common clays
Of huge relevance in a number of fields, this is a survey of the different processes of soil clay mineral formation and the consequences of these processes concerning the soil ecosystem, especially plant and mineral. Two independent systems form soil materials. The first is the interaction of rocks and water, unstable minerals adjusting to surface conditions. The second is the interaction of the biosphere with clays in the upper parts of alteration profiles.
