A regularly interstratified chlorite/vermiculite occurs in red beds of the East Berlin Formation (Early Jurassic age) in the Connecticut Valley. The mineral is restricted to a 2.5-m wide zone of contact metamorphosed strata adjacent to and underlying the Hampden Basalt. Chemical and X-ray powder diffraction data indicate that the chlorite/vermiculite formed in response to lava-induced elevated temperatures and the availability of magnesium in the muds during and shortly after emplacement of the lava flow. Near the contact, hydrothermal fluids originating from the lava and from the synchronal weathering of basalt fragments by superheated pore waters provided a source of Mg. Further from the contact, magnesium was primarily derived from the thermal dissociation of dolomite. K2O concentrations and the distribution of clay minerals in the red mudstone suggest that the interstratified chlorite/vermiculite formed from preexisting illite or vermiculite as potassium was released and brucitic sheets were incorporated into interlayer positions.

Adenosine-5-phosphates (ATP, ADP, AMP) are adsorbed by clay minerals at very low concentrations (≤2 mg/liter). In contrast to quartz, the clay minerals exhibit a strong preference for ATP over AMP. The experimental data are expressed as recovery rates (adenosine-phosphate in solution to total nucleotide added). For example, the recovery rates of ATP, ADP, and AMP in the presence of sodium montmorillonite are 0,17, and 100%; in the presence of quartz 95, 100, and 99%. The recovery rate of AMP on clays is markedly decreased by the presence of ATP, that is, ATP increases the adsorption of AMP by cooperative interactions.

A part of ATP not recovered in the equilibrium solution is dephosphorylated to ADP. For example, 45% of ATP not recovered in equilibrium solution with calcium montmorillonite is recovered as ADP; with sodium montmorillonite only ADP can be recovered in solution.

Neutron diffraction measurements for a preferentially oriented aggregate slab sample of deuterated Na-montmorillonite from Upton, Wyoming, are described for a series of clay-water contents ranging from 0 to 500 mg/g. A neutron wavelength of 2.39 Å was used with extended detectors to collect much of the “out of plane” component of the diffraction peak intensities.

The diffraction pattern intensities from the 00ℓ planes of the clay, corresponding to a reflection geometry, are a strong function of sample water content and show a variation in basal spacing from 9.8 to 19.0 Å. The hk reflections from transmission geometry measurements show, however, that the lattice a and b axes are constant within experimental uncertainty (0.02 Å) over the range in water content and their intensities vary only by a few percent. In this geometry, a broad, water-like diffraction pattern was noted as a background under the usual hk peak intensity series. This underlying water-like pattern varies in proportion to the sample water content.

Data reduction steps included consideration of background removal, multiple scattering, flux normalization, and attenuation of scattering due to sample thickness. Analysis of the reduced data revealed that the clay-water has a “liquid-like” ordering, with a density increase of approximately 5% over bulk water. An association between a few interlayer water molecules and the silicate superstructure is indicated by the slight change in the hk band intensities, but this change seems to be complete at water contents below 100 mg/g. Fourier analysis of the basal peak series from the dry clay shows that the hydrogens of the lattice hydroxyl groups lie in the same basal plane as their associated oxygen atoms.

Laterite profiles developed from granite in southwestern Australia were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The morphology of soil materials reflects the mineralogy of secondary minerals formed from feldspar. In the saprolite, etched feldspar surfaces are coated with kaolinite or radiating, spherical aggregates of tubular halloysite. In the lower pallid zone these minerals have replaced most of the feldspar. In the upper pallid zone a porous framework has developed consisting mainly of quartz and gibbsite with 5-/μm euhedral gibbsite crystals in voids. Halloysite crystals in the upper pallid zone are partly unrolled and have splayed ends. Differences in mineralogy and morphology between profiles are thought to be due to variations in the intensity of leaching.

A procedure based on loss of weight after selective dissolution analysis (SDA) and washing with (NH4)2CO3 was developed for estimating the noncrystalline material content of soils derived from widely different parent materials. After extracting with 0.2 N ammonium-oxalate or boiling 0.5 N NaOH solutions, samples were washed with 1 N (NH4)2CO3 to remove excess dissolution agents and to prevent sample dispersion. The amount of noncrystalline material removed from the sample by the extracting solution was estimated by weighing the leached products dried to constant weight at 110°C. The results match closely with those obtained by chemical analyses of the dissolution product and assignment of the appropriate water. The proposed weight-loss method is less time-consuming than the chemical method, and no assumptions need be made concerning sample homogeneity or water content of the noncrystalline material.

Extractions of whole soil and dispersed clay fractions indicated that noncrystalline material determinations on the clay fractions underestimated the noncrystalline material content for whole soils from 0 to 34%. Acid ammonium oxalate was found to be a much more selective extractant for noncrystalline materials than NaOH.

Fe57 Mössbauer spectroscopy has been used to determine the nature of iron-containing minerals in Lower Greensand samples from an experimental lysimeter at Uffington, Oxfordshire, both before and after a three-year irrigation with a synthetic heavy metal leachate. Analysis of the spectra measured at 300°, 77°, and 4.2°K and at 4.2°K in an applied field of 45 kOe shows that iron is present in the uncontaminated sandstone in fine-grained goethite (α-FeOOH) and glauconite. In the irrigated samples iron is precipitated as a fine-grained ferric hydroxide gel having values for the hyperfine field at 4.2°K of 435 and 470 kOe. The stability of the gel over the three-year period of irrigation may be explained by surface energy considerations.

Hydrotalcite solid solutions were prepared by coprecipitation followed by hydrothermal treatment between 150° and 250°C. Based on the structural formula [Mg1−xAlx(OH)2]x+[(CO3)x/2 • mH2O]x−, pure solid solutions were formed in the range A1/(A1 + Mg) = 0.2 to 0.33, where m = (1 − 3x/2). Maximum crystallite size was achieved by hydrothermal treatment between 180° and 200°C, with x = 0.337 to 0.429. Crystal strain was also minimized at these values of x. The adsorption capacity for Naphthol Yellow S increased as x increased and reached a maximum (1.56 × 10−6 moles/m2) when x = 0.287, a value eight times larger than that of Mg(OH)2. A weak endothermic DTA peak at about 350°C is probably due to the loss of structural water in the main layer of the structure. On calcination between 400° and 700°C, only periclase was detected, probably containing Al in solid solution. Hydration of the calcined product resulted in the reconstruction of the original hydrotalcite structure.