Clay minerals in hydrothermally altered basalts from Middle Atlas, Morocco

Clay Minerals ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Dekayir ◽  
M. Amouric ◽  
J. Olives

AbstractClay minerals occur as replacements of olivine, pyroxenes, plagioclase and interstitial materials, and as vesicle fillings, in altered basalts from the Middle Atlas (Morocco). Phyllosilicates are the main components of this alteration process. They have been characterized here by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy as saponite, talc, corrensite and chlorite. The homogeneity of the chemical compositions of these phyllosilicates, in different alteration environments, probably means that they are controlled by the composition of the hydrothermal fluid. Talc-saponite-corrensite (with dominant saponite) is the clay mineral association most frequently observed (corrensite being more abundant in the vesicular levels of the basalts). Such an association, with no evidence of albite and zeolite, suggests that these basalts have suffered minimal alteration at relatively low temperatures. Another association, chlorite-corrensite, was detected in a deeper (vesicular) sample, probably resulting from a slightly higher temperature. Lastly, only discrete phyllosilicates (i.e. no random mixed-layer minerals) were observed. This suggests that near-equilibrium conditions prevailed during this alteration stage and that a dissolution-crystallization process was the main mechanism of transformation.

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 718
Author(s):  
Isis Armstrong Dias ◽  
Leonardo Fadel Cury ◽  
Bruno Guimarães Titon ◽  
Gustavo Barbosa Athayde ◽  
Guilherme Fedalto ◽  
...  

Mg clay minerals are usually associated with carbonates in alkaline-saline environments, precipitated from solution and/or transformation from other minerals. The aim of this research is to identify the mineralogy and geochemistry of clay minerals in different alkaline lakes in the Nhecolândia region, the southernmost region of the Pantanal wetland (Brazil). Sediment samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Water samples were analyzed, determining their main cations and anions, in order to understand their relationship with the clays. The analyses allowed classifying the water bodies as saline, oligosaline and freshwater lakes. The sediments are composed mainly of quartz and a fine-clay fraction, dominated by illite, kaolinite and smectite. The XRD results showed illite and smectite mixed-layered in the saline lakes at Barranco Alto farm, whereas at Nhumirim farm, trioctahedral smectite was only observed in one lake. The smectite minerals were normally identified coupled with calcite at the top of the sequences, associated with exopolymeric substances (EPS) in the lakes, suggesting that these minerals are precipitating due to the physical-chemical and biological conditions of the water bodies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 104 (10) ◽  
pp. 1436-1443
Author(s):  
Guanyu Wang ◽  
Hejing Wang ◽  
Jianguo Wen

Abstract Interstratified clay minerals reflect the weathering degree and record climatic conditions and the pedogenic processes in the soil. It is hard to distinguish a few layers of interstratified clay minerals from the chlorite matrix, due to their similar two-dimensional tetrahedral-octahedral-tetrahedral (TOT) structure and electron-beam sensitive nature during transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. Here, we used multiple advanced TEM techniques including low-dose high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) imaging combined with energy-dispersive spectroscopic (EDS) mapping to study interstratified layers in a chlo-rite sample from Changping, Beijing, China. We demonstrated an interstratified mica or pyrophyllite monolayer could be well distinguished from the chlorite matrix by projected atomic structures, lattice spacings, and chemical compositions with advanced TEM techniques. Further investigation showed two different transformation mechanisms from mica or pyrophyllite to chlorite: either a 4 Å increase or decrease in the lattice spacing. This characterization approach can be extended to the studies of other electron-beam sensitive minerals.


Clay Minerals ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Sequeira Braga ◽  
C. Leal Gomes ◽  
J. Duplay ◽  
H. Paquet

AbstractNamacotche gem-bearing pegmatites of Alto Ligonha pegmatite district are heterogeneous, strongly fractionated, and have large Li and Ta and extremely large Cs contents. Clay samples were collected in fracture infillings and dilation cavities with gemstones and were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), polarized light microscope, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and chemical analyses. The <2 μm fraction contains cookeite, illite, illite-smectite and suggested irregular mixed-layer cookeite-smectite, beidellite, montmorillonite, kaolinite and goethite.The XRD patterns of chlorite and their d values suggest the presence of ‘di-trioctahedral chlorite’ similar to cookeite-Ia polytype. Cookeite chemical analyses show that Li contents range from 0.82 to 1.08 atoms per half unit cell.A close relationship has been established between occurrences of gemstones and clay minerals. Some important textures and crystal chemistry are discussed.The main gemstones related to the Namacotche Pegmatite are: morganite (pink cesian beryl), kunzite (spodumene) and elbaite tourmaline. As the mechanisms responsible for the gemstone formation take place at low temperature, the clay minerals paragenesis cookeite ± cookeite-smectite interstratification ± beidellite + montmorillonite ± illite-smectite interstratification, represents a late-stage secondary paragenesis, generated by hydrothermal alteration.


Metals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián Puszkiel ◽  
M. Castro Riglos ◽  
José Ramallo-López ◽  
Martin Mizrahi ◽  
Thomas Gemming ◽  
...  

Mg2FeH6 is regarded as potential hydrogen and thermochemical storage medium due to its high volumetric hydrogen (150 kg/m3) and energy (0.49 kWh/L) densities. In this work, the mechanism of formation of Mg2FeH6 under equilibrium conditions is thoroughly investigated applying volumetric measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), and the combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Starting from a 2Mg:Fe stoichiometric powder ratio, thorough characterizations of samples taken at different states upon hydrogenation under equilibrium conditions confirm that the formation mechanism of Mg2FeH6 occurs from elemental Mg and Fe by columnar nucleation of the complex hydride at boundaries of the Fe seeds. The formation of MgH2 is enhanced by the presence of Fe. However, MgH2 does not take part as intermediate for the formation of Mg2FeH6 and acts as solid-solid diffusion barrier which hinders the complete formation of Mg2FeH6. This work provides novel insight about the formation mechanism of Mg2FeH6.


1991 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. B. Zhang ◽  
F. Z. Cui ◽  
S. Wang ◽  
H. D. Li

AbstractThis paper presents a detailed investigation of the hierarchical and structural organization of the collagen-based aggregates in ivory. Ivory from African elephants is selected as the prototype in this study. A sophisticated architecture composed of collagen fibers and hydroxyapatite-like particles is revealed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction and TEN with selected area diffraction are employed to analyze the structure. Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis and infrared absorption spectroscopy give information about the composition and chemical environment of the atoms in ivory. It is found that the structure of ivory has a three-level hierarchical organization, which includes both organic and inorganic materials. In the structure the inorganic material exists inside an organic framework, located outside of the collagen fibrils in the extrafibrillar volume. This inorganic structure has a polycrystalline form. Both the chemical compositions and the chemical environment of the atoms in the hydroxyapatite-like particles in ivory are different from those in natural hydroxyapatite.


Soil Research ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 805 ◽  
Author(s):  
GJ Churchman ◽  
PG Slade ◽  
PG Self ◽  
LJ Janik

The clay minerals in the < 2 �m, and finer, size fractions of several horizons from each of five Australian soils of different types and from different locations have been analysed by X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray fluorescence. Samples from each profile contained a phase in which layers of smectite and of kaolin (positively identified as kaolinite) were randomly interstratified with each other. The relative proportions of the two types of layers varied widely. One interstratified phase contained 70% smectite. This value for smectite content of kaolin-smectites is as high as any reported in the literature. The charges associated with the interstratified smectite layers also differed substantially. Discrete kaolinite commonly occurred along with interstratified kaolinite-smectite, Towards the surfaces of the soils, the proportions of kaolinite in the interstratified phases increased at the expense of smectite.


Clay Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Toshihiro Kogure

Abstract This review demonstrates that high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) imaging of clay minerals or phyllosilicates with an incident electron beam along the major zone axes parallel to the constituting layers, in which the contrast corresponds to individual cation columns in the images obtained, is indispensable for elucidating the enigmatic structures of these minerals. Several kinds of variables for layer stacking, including polytypes, stacking disorder and the interstratification of various kinds of unit layers or interlayer materials, are common in phyllosilicates. Local and rigorous determination of such variables is possible only with HRTEM, although examination as to whether the results obtained by the HRTEM images from limited areas represent the whole specimen should be made using other techniques, such as X-ray diffraction. Analysis of these stacking features in clay minerals provides valuable insights into their origin and/or formation processes. Recent state-of-the-art techniques in electron microscopy, including incoherent imaging, superior resolutions of ~0.1 nm and low-dose imaging using new recording media, will also contribute significantly to our understanding of the true structures of clay minerals.


Clay Minerals ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Violante ◽  
P. M. Huang

AbstractThe influence of kaolinite and montmorillonite on the identification of pseudoboehmite was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), infrared absorption (IR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the randomly oriented samples containing different proportions of the clay minerals and pseudoboehmite, pseudoboehmite was not easily detectable by XRD even in a sample containing 40% of pseudoboehmite. Preheating of the samples at 110-300°C improved the detection limit to 30%. In samples obtained by mixing suitable amounts of the suspensions of the clay minerals (<2μm)and pseudoboehmite, the identification of pseudoboehmite was even more difficult. In oriented samples, pseudoboehmite was detectable only when present in amounts >30%, at low full-scale counts per second (1000-400 cps), on preheated samples in the presence of kaolinite, or on the samples that were Mg-saturated and solvated with ethylene glycol in the presence of montmorillonite. Identification of pseudoboehmite in the presence of kaolinite or montmorillonite by DTA, IR or TEM failed, even in samples containing 50% pseudoboehmite. In the presence of both kaolinite and montmorillonite (1:1 w/w), the identification of pseudoboehmite became much more difficult than in the presence of either mineral alone. The presence of pseudoboehmite in soils may, thus, be undetectable by standard clay mineralogical analyses.


Author(s):  
C. Wolpers ◽  
R. Blaschke

Scanning microscopy was used to study the surface of human gallstones and the surface of fractures. The specimens were obtained by operation, washed with water, dried at room temperature and shadowcasted with carbon and aluminum. Most of the specimens belong to patients from a series of X-ray follow-up study, examined during the last twenty years. So it was possible to evaluate approximately the age of these gallstones and to get information on the intensity of growing and solving.Cholesterol, a group of bile pigment substances and different salts of calcium, are the main components of human gallstones. By X-ray diffraction technique, infra-red spectroscopy and by chemical analysis it was demonstrated that all three components can be found in any gallstone. In the presence of water cholesterol crystallizes in pane-like plates of the triclinic crystal system.


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