Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T07:28:53.187Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, a Forerunner in 1794–95 of Experimental Weathering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Albert V. Carozzi
Albert V. Carozzi*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801-2999
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In a hitherto unpublished manuscript dated 1794–95, H.-B. de Saussure described three types of rudimentary laboratory experiments on weathering, each one lasting about 4 hours, undertaken on samples of jade, serpentine, feldspar, and mica schist. He submitted these samples to dry heating, heating with continuous addition of water, and heating with periodic addition of water. Experimentation was performed at temperatures of the order of 200–250°C, and Saussure seems to have realized that a reasonable increase of temperature was necessary for laboratory simulation of long-lasting geological processes. No changes were observed during dry heating whereas increasing alteration was noticed in the presence of water, particularly when heating was combined with periodic wetting. He concluded that these tests demonstrated his preconceived idea that weathering of minerals (mostly silicates) resulted from alternating periods of drying and wetting. This concept is basically very close, if not identical, to that underlying modern ideas on seasonal weathering.

Keywords

Experimental weatheringJadeiteSerpentineFeldsparMica SchistGoethiteSmectiteTalcHalloysiteKaoliniteHistory of mineralogy
Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , June 1992 , pp. 323 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © 1992, The Clay Minerals Society

References

Barry, R. G., H.-B. de Saussure: the first mountain meteorologist Am. Meteo. Soc. Bull. 1978 59 702 – 705 10.1175/1520-0477(1978)059<0702:HBDSTF>2.0.CO;2.Google Scholar
Berner, R. A. and Holdren, G. R. Jr., Mechanism of feldspar weathering. II. Observations of feldspars from soils Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1979 43 1173 – 1186 10.1016/0016-7037(79)90110-8.Google Scholar
Carozzi, A. V., Forty years of thinking in front of the Alps: Saussure’s (1796) unpublished theory of the earth Earth Sciences History 1989 8 123 – 140 10.17704/eshi.8.2.h2410t6331151884.Google Scholar
Freshfield, D. W., The Life of Horace-Benedict de Saussure 1920 London Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Nahon, D. B., Introduction to the Petrology of Soils and Chemical Weathering 1991 New York Wiley.Google Scholar
Nahon, D. B., Colin, F. and Tardy, Y., Formation and distribution of Mg, Fe, Mn-smectites in the first stages of lateritic weathering of forsterite and tephroïte Clay Miner. 1982 17 1 – 9 10.1180/claymin.1982.017.3.06.Google Scholar
Noack, Y., Decarreau, A. and Manceau, A., Spectroscopic and oxygen isotopic evidence for low and high temperature origin of talc Bull. Minéral. 1986 109 253 – 263.Google Scholar
Parham, W. E., Formation of halloysite from feldspar: Low temperature artificial weathering versus natural weathering Clays & Clay Minerals 1969 17 13 – 22 10.1346/CCMN.1969.0170104.Google Scholar
Saussure, H.-B., Expériences sur la décomposition des fossiles par l’action réunie de l’eau et du feu 1794.Google Scholar
Saussure, H.-B., Voyages dans les Alpes, précédés d’un essai sur l’histoire naturelle des environs de Genève 1779 Neuchâtel et Genève S. Fauche-Borel.Google Scholar