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Clay minerals in argillaceous sediments of the Himalayan zone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Bibhuti Mukherjee*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of India, Culcutta, India
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Abstract

A study has been made of the relative abundance of clay minerals in about a hundred samples of sedimentary rocks of Pre-Cambrian, Cambrian, Upper Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Lower and Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary formations in the geosynclinal basin of the (Tethys) Himalayan zone. Chlorite predominates in the Cambrian sediments and illite in the Permo-Carboniferous to Tertiary sediments; kaolinite is a minor variable component and montmorillonite is scarce. The high-chlorite Cambrian sediments are rich in dolomite and gypsum and contain predominantly plagioclase felspars, whereas the high-illite Triassic and Eocene sediments are rich in alkali felspars, the dolomite is low and gypsum is absent. In the (newer) Tertiaries of the Middle Miocene age (fluviatile deposits in shallow freshwater basin) illite, kaolinite and montmorillonite are present in almost equal amounts but chlorite is undetectable. The predominance of kaolinite and montmorillonite in the sediments of the Lower Pleistocene period indicates the existence of a distinctly fluviatile facies in the basin of deposition. Interstratified illite-montmorillonite and montmorillonite are characteristic of Siwalik (Miocene) sediments and of Spiti-shale type Jurassic sediments.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1964

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