Microtexture and genesis of clay minerals from a turbiditic sequence in a Southern Pyrenees foreland basin (Jaca basin, Eocene)

Clay Minerals ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Bauluz ◽  
A. Yuste ◽  
M. J. Mayayo ◽  
A. B. Rodríguez-Navarro ◽  
J. M. González-López

AbstractA set of fine-grained samples from a turbiditic sequence in a Southern Pyrenees foreland basin (Jaca Basin, Eocene) were studied to determine the influence of tectonics (Pyrenean Orogeny) on phyllosilicate recrystallization and infer the grade and basin maturity. The samples from four different outcrops were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with special emphasis on clay-mineral characterization (e.g.illitic phases). The analysed samples have simple mineral assemblages and consist of detrital quartz, albite and calcite, scarce clay matrix (mainly illite with chlorite), and calcite and dolomite cement. The lack of other phyllosilicates such as mixed-layer illite-smectite (I-S), pyrophyllite, Na-micas, or kaolin minerals is quite remarkable. On the SEM scale, samples (with marl composition) have poorly sorted textures and high detrital contents. In many cases they show bedding and/or cleavage, and in some cases neither is observed. Most of the clay-sized illites show very similar crystallinity and b0 values (determined by XRD) and distributions of crystallite thickness (measured by TEM) in all the outcrops, which is typical of late-diagenesis illites forming under low-pressure conditions. These illites are parallel (or subparallel) to bedding or randomly orientated. They are also characterized by disordered polytypes and low K contents. In some TEM images, a second type of illite has been observed. This secondary illite occurs parallel to cleavage, with thicker crystals (25–35 layers), K contents in the interlayer, and a 2M1 polytype. The pole figure analysis shows that most of the clays have (00l) planes parallel (or subparallel) to bedding although there are abundant clays with random orientation. There is no trend in the clay orientation/disorientation from the south to the north of the basin. All the data indicate that the strain rate associated with the Pyrenean Orogeny has not been recorded in the turbidite sequence controlling the relative orientation of clays, although anchizonal clay crystallization is favoured as a minor process.

1997 ◽  
Vol 485 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M. Riker ◽  
M. M. Al-Jassim ◽  
F. S. Hasoon

AbstractWe have investigated CdS thin films as possible passivating window layers for InP. The films were deposited on single crystal InP by chemical bath deposition (CBD). The film thickness, as optically determined by ellipsometry, was varied from 500 to 840Å. The film morphology was investigated by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas the film microstructure was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Most of the films were fine-grained polycrystalline CdS, with some deposition conditions resulting in epitaxial growth. Cross-sectional TEM examination revealed the presence of interface contaminants. The effect of such contaminants on the film morphology and microstructure was studied, and various approaches for InP surface cleaning/treatment were investigated. The epitaxial films were determined to be hexagonal on both the (111) and (100) InP substrates; however, they were heavily faulted.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jafar F. Al-Sharab ◽  
Rajendra Sadangi ◽  
Vijay Shukla ◽  
Bernard Kear

ABSTRACTPolycrystalline Y2O3 is the material of choice for IR windows since it has excellent optical properties in the visible, and near infra-red band. However, current processing methods yield polycrystalline Y2O3 with large grain size (> 100 μm), which limits the hardness and erosion resistance attainable. One way to improve strength is to develop an ultra-fine grained material with acceptable optical transmission properties. To realize a fine-grained ceramic, one approach is to develop a composite structure, in which one phase inhibits the growth of the other phase during processing. In this study, Y2O3-MgO nanocomposite with various MgO content (20, 50 and 80 mol%) were synthesized using plasma spray method. Extensive characterization techniques including x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Energy Dispersive spectrometry (EDS) were employed to study the synthesized powder as well as the consolidated sample. Transmission Electron Microscopy, as well as EDS chemical mapping, revealed that the consolidated sample have bi-continuous MgO-Y2O3 nanostructure with an average grain size of 200 nm.


Clay Minerals ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Balbir Singh ◽  
R. J. Gilkes

AbstractSilica-indurated subsurface horizons of an in situ lateritic profile in semi-arid western Australia were investigated using a range of electron-optical and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. These indurated materials were compared with underlying non-indurated pallid zone material. The secondary silica content of the indurated horizons, as determined by electron microprobe analysis, varied from 8 to 33%. Quantitative digital images for secondary silica, generated by mathematical manipulation of digital Si and AI-Kα: images, showed that kaolinite pseudomorphs after mica contained the lowest amounts of secondary silica, with the highest amounts being present in the inter-pseudomorph clay matrix. Variations in the amount of silica in the matrix are considered to reflect variations in the initial porosity of the clay matrix. Such variations may arise from differences in the Al/Si ratio of parent minerals. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that amorphous silica adhered to the (001) face of kaolinite crystals. The secondary silica could not be detected by either standard or differential XRD procedures.


1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moo-Chin Wang ◽  
Ming-Hong Lin ◽  
Hok-Shing Liu

This study has shown the possibility of achieving two primary considerations for the advanced fabrication of spodumene with a composition of Li2O · Al2O3 · 4SiO2 · nTiO2 (LAST) glass-ceramics by a sol-gel process, namely, an enormous reduction of sintering temperature from 1600 to 1200 °C together with the appearance of simple phases of β-spodumene/rutile as opposed to products via the conventional melting-crystallization process. Fine glass-ceramic powders with a composition of Li2O · Al2O3 · 4SiO2 (LAS) have been synthesized by the sol-gel process using Si(OC2H5)4, Al(OC2H5)3, LiOCH3, and Ti(OC2H5)4 as the starting materials. The process included well-controlled hydrolysis polycondensation of the raw alkoxides. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron diffraction (ED) analysis were utilized to study the effect of TiO2 addition on the preparation of β-spodumene powders by the sol-gel process. The gelation time of the LAST solution increases as the TiO2 content increases. For the low (<3) or high (>11) pH value, the gelation time was shortened. At pH = 5, regardless of the TiO2 content, the gel has the longest time of gelation. When the dried gels of the LAST system are heated from 800 to 1200 °C, the crystallized samples are composed of the major phase of β-spodumene and a minor phase of rutile (TiO2).


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-34
Author(s):  
Rahman Ullah ◽  
Nie Fengjuin ◽  
Zhang Chengyong ◽  
Saqib Izhar ◽  
Idrees Safdar ◽  
...  

A likely tuff bed lies along the gradational contact of the Middle and Upper Siwaliks in eastern Sulaiman Range, Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistan. This tuffaceous unit is 0.5–3 m thick and extends for 10 km along the north-south strike in the eastern limb of the Zindapir anticline. It is greyish white to white on fresh surface, fine-grained to silty at the bottom and clayey at the top and thus shows a fining upward grain-size grading. The lower part of the ash bed shows a prominent lamination defined by megascopically visible abundant biotite, while the central and upper parts are so fine-grained that the individual minerals cannot be seen in hand sample. Unlike the lower well-laminated part, the central and upper parts are crudely laminated to apparently massive. The bulk samples analysed with X-ray diffraction consist of quartz, feldspar (plagioclase), biotite, clays, calcite and some ore mineral likely spinel, while the clay-size fractions contain illite, chlorite, biotite and probably their mixed-layered varieties. The colour, texture, presence of abundant biotite and stratigraphic position of the Taunsa tuff correlate with those reported from Potwar plateau and from Kashmir basin. However, the apparent absence of smectite from the XRD pattern makes the Taunsa ash bed different from both Potwar and Kashmir tuffs. The present stratigraphic position of the tuff bed corresponds to shallow diagenetic zone, while the absence of smectite in the tuff and crystallinity of illite suggest that the tuff is probably derived upon reworking from a deeper diagenetic zone belonging to a lower stratigraphic level. The Eocene or other older pre-Siwalik units in Pakistan may have or had some primary ashfall deposits as reported in the northwestern Himalayas of India. This older volcanic ash may have been reworked to its present site of occurrence along the gradational contact of the Middle and the Upper Siwaliks in Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan. However, the primary source of the Taunsa tuff may belong more likely to Chagai arc in Pakistan than to Dacht-e-Nawar volcanic complex in Afghanistan.


Author(s):  
Rahman Ullah ◽  
Nie Fengjuin ◽  
Zhang Chengyong ◽  
Saqib Izhar ◽  
Idrees Safdar ◽  
...  

A likely tuff bed lies along the gradational contact of the Middle and Upper Siwaliks in eastern Sulaiman Range, Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan district, Pakistan. This tuffaceous unit is 0.5–3 m thick and extends for 10 km along the north-south strike in the eastern limb of the Zindapir anticline. It is greyish white to white on fresh surface, fine-grained to silty at the bottom and clayey at the top and thus shows a fining upward grain-size grading. The lower part of the ash bed shows a prominent lamination defined by megascopically visible abundant biotite, while the central and upper parts are so fine-grained that the individual minerals cannot be seen in hand sample. Unlike the lower well-laminated part, the central and upper parts are crudely laminated to apparently massive. The bulk samples analysed with X-ray diffraction consist of quartz, feldspar (plagioclase), biotite, clays, calcite and some ore mineral likely spinel, while the clay-size fractions contain illite, chlorite, biotite and probably their mixed-layered varieties. The colour, texture, presence of abundant biotite and stratigraphic position of the Taunsa tuff correlate with those reported from Potwar plateau and from Kashmir basin. However, the apparent absence of smectite from the XRD pattern makes the Taunsa ash bed different from both Potwar and Kashmir tuffs. The present stratigraphic position of the tuff bed corresponds to shallow diagenetic zone, while the absence of smectite in the tuff and crystallinity of illite suggest that the tuff is probably derived upon reworking from a deeper diagenetic zone belonging to a lower stratigraphic level. The Eocene or other older pre-Siwalik units in Pakistan may have or had some primary ashfall deposits as reported in the northwestern Himalayas of India. This older volcanic ash may have been reworked to its present site of occurrence along the gradational contact of the Middle and the Upper Siwaliks in Taunsa area of Dera Ghazi Khan. However, the primary source of the Taunsa tuff may belong more likely to Chagai arc in Pakistan than to Dacht-e-Nawar volcanic complex in Afghanistan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-304
Author(s):  
Mark Longman ◽  
Virginia Gent ◽  
James Hagadorn

We integrate new and previous stratigraphic and petrographic data for the mid-Turonian Codell Sandstone to interpret its provenance, depositional characteristics, and environments. Our focus is on sedimentologic, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence analyses of cores and thin sections spread throughout the Denver Basin, augmented by interpretation and correlation of well logs, isopach maps, outcrops, and provenance data. Although we treat the Codell as a single mappable unit, it actually consists of two geographically disjunct sandstone packages separated by a southwest-northeast-trending gap, the NoCoZo, short for No Codell Zone. The Codell is everywhere capped by a significant unconformity and across much of the northern Denver Basin rests unconformably on the underlying shales of the Carlile Shale. In the southern Denver Basin, the Codell commonly contains two parasequences, each of which becomes less muddy upward. Biostratigraphic and geochonologic data suggest that the unit represents deposition over a relatively brief time, spanning ~0.4 Ma from ~91.7 to ~91.3 Ma. The Codell is predominantly a thin (<50 ft) sheet-like package of pervasively bioturbated coarse siltstone and very fine-grained sandstone dominated by quartz and chert grains 50 to 100 μm in diameter. The unit is more phosphatic than the underlying members of the Carlile Shale, and its grain size coarsens to medium-grained in the northern part of the basin. An unusual aspect of the Codell across our study area is the generally excellent grain sorting despite the presence of an intermixed clay matrix. This duality of well sorted grains in a detrital clay matrix is due to the bioturbation that dominates the unit. Such burrowing created a textural inversion that obscures most of the unit’s primary sedimentary structures, except for thin intervals dominated by interlaminated silty shale and very fine sandstone. A relatively widespread and unburrowed example of this bedded facies is preserved in a thin (<10 ft) interval that extends across most of the northern Denver Basin where it is informally called the middle Codell bedded to laminated lithofacies. Sparse beds with hummocky or swaley cross-stratified and ripple cross-laminated fine-grained sandstone are present locally in this bedded facies. We hypothesize that Codell sediments were derived from a major deltaic source extending into the Western Interior Seaway from northwestern Wyoming, and that the Codell was deposited and reworked southward on the relatively flat floor of the Seaway by waxing and waning shelf currents as well as storms and waves. Codell sediments were spread across an area of more than 100,000 mi2 in this epeiric shelf system that spans eastern Colorado, southeastern Wyoming, western Kansas, parts of Nebraska and beyond.


2014 ◽  
Vol 783-786 ◽  
pp. 2720-2725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorg M.K. Wiezorek ◽  
G. Facco ◽  
Y. Idell ◽  
A. Kulovits ◽  
M.R. Shankar

Using a novel plastic deformation technique, termed linear plane-strain machining, large shear strains up to ~2.3 have been imparted to 316L stainless steel at rates of up to 1700/s. Combinations of hardness and magnetic measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments were used to monitor the microstructural and mechanical property changes for the room temperature plastic deformation processing. Grain refinements to the ultra-fine grained and even the nanocrystalline size regime have been achieved without formation of significant volume fractions of strain-induced martensite. The mechanical strength enhancements in the linear plane-strain machined 316L have been attributed to grain refinement and stored strain. The suppression of martensite formation has been correlated to significant adiabatic heating of the 316L during high strain rate plastic deformation processing.


1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 2290-2297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moo-Chin Wang

Fine β-spodumene-type amorphous powders were obtained through sol-gel techniques using Si(OC2H5)4, Al (OC2H5)3, LiOCH3, and Ti(OC2H5)4as the starting metal alkoxides. Differential thermal analysis (DTA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron diffraction (ED) analysis were utilized to study the phase transformation behavior of the LAST gels. The viscosity of the LAST solution increased abruptly at longer time when the TiO2content was increased. As the TiO2content was increased, the peak position of β-spodumene phase formation in DTA curves was shifted to a lower temperature. For calcination of LAST gels at 800°-1200 °C, the crystallized phases are composed of the major phase of β-spodumene and a minor phase of rutile (TiO2). Unlike earlier studies, heating the dried LAST gels from 800 °C to 1200 °C did not show β-eucryptite, nor found γ-spodumene.


1985 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Robinson ◽  
J. K. Howard

ABSTRACTThe addition of Ta into thin sputtered films of CoCr greatly affects the microstructure and magnetic properties. Grain size, crystallographic preferred orientation and hysteresis parameters have been studied using transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, polar Kerr effect and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. Crystallographic preferred orientation is enhanced and is accompanied by increased perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. An extremely fine-grained microstructure is produced giving rise to films which show no morphological growth features. Thus the observed magnetocrystalline anisotropy is not attributed to columnar growth. Orientation in these films can be further increased by using under-layers of non-ferromagnetic CoCrTa alloys. The mechanism by which this occurs is discussed.


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