Hostname: page-component-669899f699-7tmb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T17:39:46.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Glauconite formation in lacustrine/palaeosol sediments, Isle of Wight (Hampshire Basin), UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

J. M. Huggett  and
J. Cuadros
J. M. Huggett*
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK Petroclays, The Oast, Sandy Cross, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8QP, UK
J. Cuadros
Affiliation:
Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
*
*E-mail: info@petroclays.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The clay mineralogy and chemistry of a green lacustrine marl that has been pedogenically modified in the upper part was investigated in order to better understand the formation of low-temperature Fe-rich 10 Å clay. Twelve samples in a vertical sequence have been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser particle size analysis. The clay assemblage has a range of overall illite-smectite (I-S) compositions (64–100%) resulting from several I-S phases that, for the sake of modelling, have been simplified to one to three I-S phases of increasing illitic content. Where the lacustrine marl has been pedogenically modified, the smectite-rich I-S is much reduced in abundance or absent and the 10 Å -rich component is both more abundant and more illitic. These assemblages are a consequence of illitization of detrital I-S in the lake and soil, and dissolution of other clays (kaolinite and chlorite) in the hypersaline lake. Interlayer K, octahedral Fe and octahedral + interlayer Mg increase with intensity of illitization (increase range 0.32–0.63, 0.68–1.67, 0.18–0.24 per O10(OH)2, respectively), first in the increasingly saline lake, and latterly as a result of wetting and drying in a gley soil. In the soil environment, reduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II) resulted in increased layer charge but, as by this stage very few smectite interlayers remained, this did not result in an equivalent increase in illite. Laser particle-size analysis, supported by SEM observation, shows the existence of a bimodal distribution of clay particle size (maxima at 0.2 and 1.5–1.8 μm) in which the finer fraction increases largely in the pedogenically affected samples, probably due to particle break-up caused by seasonal wetting and drying. This ‘dual action’ illitization, first in a hypersaline lake and latterly through wetting and drying, may be responsible for both the intensity of illitization and exceptionally high (for the Solent Group) Fe content of the authigenic illite. The chemical characteristics of the illitic I-S and the illite end-member correspond to glauconite. Hence, this is an example of onshore, non-pelletal glauconite formation.

Keywords

hypersaline lakeIsle of Wightglauconitelow-temperature illitizationwetting and drying
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 35 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Armenteros, I., Daley, B. & Garcia, E. (1997) Lacustrine and palustrine facies in the Bembridge Limestone (late Eocene, Hampshire Basin) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 128, 111–132.Google Scholar
Bailey, S.W. (1980) Summary of recommendations of AIPEA nomenclature committee. Clays and Clay Minerals, 28, 73–78.Google Scholar
Bailey, S.W. (1986) Report of AIPEA Nomenclature Committee. Supplement to AIPEA Newsletter No. 22.Google Scholar
Besson, G., Glaeser, R. & Tchoubar, C. (1983) Le césium révélateur de structure des smectites. Clay Minerals, 18, 11–19.Google Scholar
Chamley, H. (1989) Clay and geodynamics. Pp. 527–561 in: Clay Sedimentology. Springer-Verlag. New York, USA.Google Scholar
Daley, B. (1973) The palaeoenvironment of the Bembridge Marls (Oligocene) of the Isle of Wight. Proceedings of the Geologists Association, 84, 83–93.Google Scholar
Daley, B. (1999) Palaeogene sections on the Isle of Wight. A revision of their description and significance in the light of research undertaken over recent decades. Tertiary Research, 19, 1–69.Google Scholar
Deconinck, J.F., Strasser, A. & Debrabant, P. (1988) Formation of illitic minerals at surface temperatures in Purbeckian sediments (lower Berriasian, Swiss and French Jura). Clay Minerals, 23, 91–103.Google Scholar
Eberl, D., Środoń, J. & Northrop, R. (1986) Potassium fixation in smectite by wetting and drying. Pp. 296–326 in: ACS Symposium Series 323 (Davis, J.A. & Hayes, K.F., editors). American Chemical Society, Washington DC, USA.Google Scholar
El Albani, A., Meunier, A. & Fursich, F. (2005) Unusual occurrence of glauconite in a shallow marine lagoonal environment (Lower Cretaceous, northern Aquitaine Basin, SW France). Terra Nova, 17, 537–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, E.A. (1980) Soils, their Formation, Classification and Distribution. Longman, London.Google Scholar
Gale, A.S., Huggett, J.M., Palike, H., Laurie, E., Hailwood, E., Hardenbol, J. & Jeffrey, P. (2006) Correlation of Eocene-Oligocene marine and continental records: orbital cyclicity, magneto- and sequence stratigraphy of the Solent Group, Isle of Wight, UK. Journal of the Geological Society, 163, 401–413.Google Scholar
Garrells, R.M. & Christ, C.L. (1965) Solutions, Minerals, and Equilibria. Harper and Row, New York, USA.Google Scholar
Hay, R.L., Guldman, S.G., Mathews, J.C., Lander, R.H., Duffm, M.E. & Kyser, T.K. (1991) Clay mineral diagenesis in core km-3 of Searles Lake, California. Clays and Clay Minerals, 39, 84–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hover, V.C. & Ashley, G.M. (2003) Geochemical signatures of paleodepositional and diagenetic environments: a STEM/AEM study of authigenic clay minerals from an arid rift basin, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Clays and Clay Minerals, 51, 231–251.Google Scholar
Huggett, J.M. (2005) Glauconites. Pp. 542–548 in: Encyclopedia of Geology Vol. 3. (Selley, R.C., L.Cocks, R.M. & Plimer, I.R., editors). Elsevier. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Huggett, J.M. & Cuadros, J. (2005) Low-temperature illitization of smectite in the late Eocene and early Oligoeene of the Isle of Wight (Hampshire basin), UK. American Mineralogist, 90, 1192–1202.Google Scholar
Huggett, J.M. & Gale, A.S. (1997) Petrology and palaeoenvironmental significance of glaucony in the Eocene succession at Whitecliff Bay, Hampshire Basin, UK. Journal of the Geological Society, 154, 897–912.Google Scholar
Huggett, J.M., Gale, A.S. & Clauer, N. (2001) Nature and origin of non-marine 10 Å clay from the Late Eocene and Early Oligoeene of the Isle of Wight (Hampshire Basin), UK. Clay Minerals, 36, 447–464.Google Scholar
Ingles, M. & Ramos-Guerrero, E. (1995) Sedimentological control on the clay mineral distribution in the marine and non-marine Palaeogene deposits of Mallorca (Western Mediterranean). Sedimentary Geology, 94, 229–243.Google Scholar
Mamy, J. & Gaultier, J.P. (1975) Etude de l'éevolution de Pordre cristallin dans la montmorillonite en relation avec la diminution d'échangeabilité du potassium (Abstract). Proceedings of the 5th International Clay Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, 149-155.Google Scholar
Moore, D.M. & Reynolds, R.C. (1997) X-ray Diffraction and the Identification and Analysis of Clay Minerals, 378 pp. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Odin, G. (1988) Green Marine Clays. Developments in Sedimentology 45, Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Plançon, A. (2002) New modeling of X-ray diffraction by disordered lamellar structures, such as phyllosilicates. American Mineralogist, 87, 1672–1677.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.C. Jr. & Reynolds, R.C. III (1996) NEWMOD: The Calculation of One-Dimensional X-ray Diffraction Patterns of Mixed-Layered Clay Minerals. Computer Program. 8 Brook Road, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.Google Scholar
Rieder, M., Cavazzini, G., D'Yakonov, Y.S., Frank-Kamenetskii, V.A., Gottardi, G., Guggenheim, S., Koval, P.V., Miiller, G., Neiva, A.M.R., Radoslovich, E.W., Robert, J.L., Sassi, F.P., Takeda, H., Weiss, Z. & Wones, D.R. (1998) Nomenclature of the micas. The Canadian Mineralogist, 36, 905–912.Google Scholar
Robinson, D. & Wright, V.P. (1987) Ordered illite-smectite and kaolinite-smectite: pedogenic minerals in a lower Carboniferous paleosol sequence, South Wales. Clay Minerals, 22, 109–118.Google Scholar
Russell, J.D. & Fraser, A.R. (1994) Infrared methods. Pp. 11–67 in: Clay Mineralogy: Spectroscopic and Chemical Determinative Methods, (Wilson, M.J., editor), Chapman & Hall, London.Google Scholar
Singer, A. (1984) The paleoclimatic interpretation of clay minerals in sediments — a review. Earth-Science Reviews, 21, 251–293.Google Scholar
Singer, A. & Staffers, P. (1980) Clay mineral diagenesis in two East African lake sediments. Clay Minerals, 15, 291–307.Google Scholar
Siyuan, S. & Stucki, J. (1994) Effects of iron oxidation state on the fate and behaviour of potassium in soils. Pp. 173–185 in: Soil Testing: Prospects for Improving Nutrient Recommendations. Soil Science Society of America Special Publication 40.Google Scholar
Smith, B. (1994) Characterization of poorly ordered minerals by selective chemical methods. Pp. 333–357 in: Clay Mineralogy: Spectroscopic and Chemical Determinative Methods (Wilson, M.J., editor), Chapman & Hall, London.Google Scholar
Stucki, J. (1997) Redox processes in smectites: Soil environmental significance. Advances in GeoEcology, 30, 395–406.Google Scholar
Šuchá, V. & Širánová, V. (1991) Ammonium and potassium fixation in smectite by wetting and drying. Clays and Clay Minerals, 39, 556–559.Google Scholar
Weiszburg, T.G., Toth, E. & Beran, A. (2004) Celadonite, the 10Å green clay mineral of the manganese carbonate ore, Úrkút, Hungary. Ada Mineralogica Petrographica, 45, 65–80.Google Scholar
White, R.E. (1997) Principles and Practice of Soil Science. Blackwell Science Ltd., Oxford.Google Scholar