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Diagenesis of silica minerals from clay minerals in volcanic soils of Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

F . Elsass ,
D. Dubroeucq  and
M. Thiry
F . Elsass*
Affiliation:
INRA, Science du Sol, Route de Saint-Cyr, F-78026 Versailles Cedex
D. Dubroeucq
Affiliation:
IRD (ex ORSTOM), 32 avenue Henri Varagnat, F-93143 Bondy Cedex
M. Thiry
Affiliation:
CIG, ENSMP, 35 rue Saint Honoré, F-77305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Indurated volcanic soils (tepetates) of the Mexican Altiplano display thick columnar horizons, hard laminar horizons, and grey mottles at depth. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show a relative enrichment in cristobalite vs. halloysite in the indurated plates of the laminar horizons and in the clay fraction of the mottles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) studies of these two soil components have shown that they are composed of small tubes of halloysite in which numerous globular grains ∼1 μm in diameter are embedded. Based on the relative abundance of cristobalite in pedological features and on the spatial relations between successive mineral phases, we interpret the cristobalite as a transformation of halloysite with a transitional amorphous phase. In the globular grains, large platy 1:1 clay minerals undergo a progressive transformation into platy particles of opal-A and opal-C. These are in turn transformed into cristobalite without further major change in their shape and appearance, except for a higher electron density than opal and clay.

Keywords

opalcristobalitevolcanic soilsindurationsilicificationX-ray diffractionelectron microscopy
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , June 2000 , pp. 477 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2000

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