Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T01:30:55.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transmission Electron Microscope Observations of Illite Polytypism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Susan M. Baxter Grubb ,
Donald R. Peacor  and
Wei-Teh Jiang
Susan M. Baxter Grubb
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1063
Donald R. Peacor
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1063
Wei-Teh Jiang
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1063
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.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), including selected area electron diffraction (SAED), has been used to identify polytypes in illite, phengite and muscovite from samples representing a wide range of diagenesis and low-temperature metamorphism. Samples include Gulf Coast sediments, sediments from the Salton Sea region, California, the Martinsburg Formation at Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania, the Kalkberg Formation at Catskill, New York, Otago Schists from southern New Zealand, pelites from the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada, shales and slates from Wales, sediments from the Barbados accretionary complex, and synthetic hydrothermal illite.

Samples from rocks of lowest grades, including those representing a range of sedimentary diagenesis, invariably give SAED patterns with few, complex non-00l reflections which are diffuse and ill-defined and that represent largely disordered stacking sequences. Corresponding XRD patterns are consistent with 1Md polytypism. The term 1Md is therefore retained for this material. Higher grade samples, including those in which slaty cleavage is developed, and detrital grains in low-grade sediments invariably give diffraction patterns of well-ordered 2- or 3-layer polytypes. Of all samples and localities studied, only one diffraction pattern, from a sample in the Gaspé sequence, was found to be predominantly 1M. In none of the other sequences included in this study were any 1M or predominantly 1M electron diffraction patterns obtained for illite grains.

Where illite is in its original state of formation, it is consistently 1Md, whether it originates as a result of direct crystallization from solution or as a replacement of smectite. Where illite has apparently undergone subsequent change, presumably through dissolution and crystallization representing an Ostwald-step-rule-like change, it occurs as a well-ordered 2-layer (inferred to be 2M1) or, less commonly, a 3T polytype. On the basis of this limited survey, the state of polytypism appears to directly identify illite as either being in, or changed from, its initial state of formation.

Keywords

IllitePolytypismTransmission electron microscopy
Type
Research Article
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 39 , Issue 5 , October 1991 , pp. 540 - 550
Copyright
Copyright © 1991, The Clay Minerals Society

Footnotes

1

Contribution No. 479 from the Mineralogical Laboratory, Department of Geological Sciences, The University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109.

References

Abbott, R. N. Jr. and Burnham, C. W., 1988 Polytypism in micas: A polyhedral approach to energy calculations Amer. Mineral. 73 105 – 118.Google Scholar
Ahn, J. H. and Peacor, D. R., 1986 Transmission and analytical electron microscopy of the smectite-to-illite transition Clays & Clay Minerals 34 165 – 179.Google Scholar
Ahn, J. H. and Peacor, D. R., 1987 Kaolinitization of biotite: TEM data and implications for an alteration mechanism Amer. Mineral. 72 353 – 356.Google Scholar
Ahn, J. H., Peacor, D. R. and Coombs, D. S., 1988 Formation mechanisms of illite, chlorite and mixed-layer illite-chlorite in Triassic volcanogenic sediments from the Southland Syncline, New Zealand Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 99 82 – 89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amouric, M., Mercuriot, G. and Baronnet, A., 1981 On computer HRTEM images of perfect mica polytypes Bull. Mineral. 104 298 – 313.Google Scholar
Austin, G. S., Glass, H. D. and Hughes, R. E., 1989 Resolution of the polytype structure of some illitic clay minerals that appear to be 1Md Clays & Clay Minerals 37 128 – 134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, S. W. and Bailey, S. W., 1984 Classification and structures of the micas Micas, Reviews in Mineralogy, Vol. 13 Washington, D.C. Mineralogical Society of America 1 – 36.Google Scholar
Bailey, S. W., 1988 X-ray diffraction identification of the polytypes of mica, serpentine, and chlorite Clays & Clay Minerals 36 193 – 213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baronnet, A., 1975 Growth spirals and complex polytypism in micas. I. Polytypic structure generation Acta Cryst. 345 – 355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buatier, M. D., Peacor, D. R. and O’Neil, J. R., 1991 Origin and evolution of clays in the sediments of the Barbados accretionary wedge (site 671B, Leg 110) Eos, Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, suppl. 72 269.Google Scholar
DiMarco, M. J., Ferrell, R E Jr and Lowe, D. E., 1989 Polytypes of 2:1 dioctahedral micas in silicified volcanoclastic sandstones, Warrawoona Group, Pilbara Block, Western Australia Amer. Jour. Sci. 289 649 – 660.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eberl, D. E., Środoń, J., Lee, M., Nadeau, P. H. and Northrop, H. R., 1987 Sericite from the Silverton Caldera, Colorado: Correlation among structure, composition, origin and particle thickness Amer. Mineral. 72 914 – 934.Google Scholar
Freed, R. L., 1981 Shale mineralogy and burial diagenesis of Frio and Vicksburg formations in two geopressured wells, McAllen Ranch area, Hidalgo County, Texas Gulf Coast Assoc. Geol. Soc. Trans. 31 289 – 293.Google Scholar
Freed, R. L., 1982 Clay mineralogy and depositional history of the Frio Formation in two geopressured wells, Brazoria County, Texas Gulf Coast Assoc. Geol. Soc. Trans. 32 459 – 463.Google Scholar
Freed, R. L. and Peacor, D. R., 1991 Diagenesis and the formation of authigenic illite-rich I/S crystals in Gulf Coast Shales: TEM study of clay separates J. Sediment. Petrol. .Google Scholar
Frey, M., Hunziker, J. C., Jager, E. and Stern, W. B., 1983 Regional distribution of white K-mica polymorphs and their phengite content in the central Alps Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 83 185 – 197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grim, R. E., 1968 Illite minerals Clay Mineralogy 2nd ed New York International Series in Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGraw-Hill 92 – 99.Google Scholar
Güven, N., 1971 Structural factors controlling stacking sequences in dioctahedral micas Clays & Clay Minerals 19 159 – 165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helgeson, H. C., 1968 Geologic and thermodynamic characteristics of the Salton Sea geothermal system Amer. Jour. Sci. 266 129 – 166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E. V., Hower, M. E. and Perry, E. A., 1976 Mechanism of burial metamorphism of argillaceous sediments: 1. Mineralogical and chemical evidence Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 87 725 – 737.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. E., Moore, D. M., Austin, G. S. and Glass, H. D., 1988 Further studies on the origin, identification, and quantification of illite polytypes Program and abstracts, 25th Annual Meeting, The Clay Minerals Society, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49.Google Scholar
Hunziker, J. C., Frey, M., Dallmeyer, R. D., Freidrichsen, H., Flemig, W., Hochstrasser, K., Ruggwiler, P. and Schwan-der, H., 1986 The evolution of illite to muscovite: Mineralogical and isotopic data from the Glarus Alps, Switzerland Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 92 157 – 180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iijima, S. and Buseck, P. R., 1978 Experimental study of disordered mica structures by high-resolution electron microscopy Acta Cryst. A34 709 – 719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iijima, S. and Zhu, J., 1982 Electron microscopy of a mus-covite-biotite interface Amer. Mineral. 67 1195 – 1205.Google Scholar
Inoue, A., Kohyama, N., Kitagawa, R. and Watanabe, T., 1987 Chemical and morphological evidence for the conversion of smectite to illite Clays & Clay Minerals 35 111 – 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inoue, A., Velde, B., Meunier, A. and Touchard, G., 1988 Mechanism of illite formation during smectite-to-illite conversion in a hydrothermal system Amer. Mineral. 73 1325 – 1334.Google Scholar
Jiang, W.-T. and Peacor, D. R., 1990 Parallel diagenesis/metamorphism of dioctahedral illite and trioctahedral chloritic minerals in the pelitic rocks of the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec Program and abstracts, 1990 Annual Meeting, Geol. Soc. of Amer., Dallas, Texas A258 – 259.Google Scholar
Jiang, W.-T. Peacor, D. R., Merriman, R. J. and Roberts, B., 1990 Transmission and analytical electron microscopic study of mixed-layer illite/smectite formed as an apparent replacement product of diagenetic illite Clays & Clay Minerals 38 449 – 468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpova, G. V., 1969 Clay mineral post-sedimentary ranks in terrigenous rocks Sedimentology 13 5 – 20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, H. J., Larson, G. and Chilingar, G. V., 1983 Mineralogy and petrology of burial diagenesis (burial metamorphism) and incipient metamorphism in clastic rocks Diagenesis in Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, 2 New York Elsevier 328 – 331.Google Scholar
Kreutzberger, M. E. and Peacor, D. R., 1988 Behavior of illite and chlorite during pressure solution of shaly limestone of the Kalkberg Formation, Catskill, New York J. Struct. Geol. 10 803 – 811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. H., Ahn, J. H. and Peacor, D. R., 1985 Textures in layered silicates: Progressive changes through diagenesis and low-temperature metamorphism J. Sediment. Petrol. 55 532 – 540.Google Scholar
Lee, J. H., Peacor, D. R., Lewis, D. D. and Wintsch, R. P., 1986 Evidence for syntectonic crystallization for the mudstone to slate transition at Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. J. Struct. Geol. 8 767 – 780.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, A. A., 1955 Polymorphism among illites and hydrous micas Amer. Mineral. 40 41 – 49.Google Scholar
Lonker, S. W. and Fitz Gerald, J. D., 1990 Formation of coexisting 1M and 2M polytypes in illite from an active hydrothermal system Amer. Mineral. 75 1282 – 1289.Google Scholar
Maxwell, D. T. and Hower, J., 1967 High-grade diagenesis and low-grade metamorphism of illite in the Precambrian Belt series Amer. Mineral. 52 843 – 857.Google Scholar
McKellar, I. C., 1966 Geological map of New Zealand, Sheet 25, Dunedin Dept. Sci. Indust. Res. New Zealand Wellington.Google Scholar
Merriman, R. J. and Roberts, B., 1985 A survey of white mica crystallinity and polytypes in pelitic rocks of Snowdonia and Llyn, North Wales Mineral. Mag. 49 305 – 319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriman, R. J., Roberts, B. and Peacor, D. R., 1990 A transmission electron microscope study of white mica crystallite size distribution in a mudstone to slate transitional sequence, North Wales, UK Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 106 27 – 40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morse, J. W. and Casey, W. H., 1988 Ostwald processes and mineral paragenesis in sediments Amer. Jour. Sci. 288 537 – 560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukhamet-Galeyev, A. P., Pokrovskiy, V. A., Zotov, A. V., Ivanov, I. P. and Samotoin, N., 1985 Kinetics and mechanism of hydrothermal crystallization of 2M 1 muscovite: An experimental study Internal. Geol. Rev. 27 1352 – 1364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odom, I. E. and Bailey, S. W., 1984 Glauconite and celadonite minerals Micas, Reviews in Mineralogy, Vol. 13 Washington, D.C. Mineralogical Society of America 545 – 572.Google Scholar
Pandey, D., Baronnet, A. and Krishna, P., 1982 Influence of stacking faults on spiral growth of polytype structures in mica Phys. Chem. Minerals 5 268 – 278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, R. C. Jr., 1963 Potassium-rubidium ratios and polymorphism in illites and microclines from the clay size fractions of proterozoic carbonate rocks Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 27 1097 – 1112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, J. V. and Yoder, H. S., 1956 Experimental and theoretical study of the mica polymorphs Mineral. Mag. 31 209 – 231.Google Scholar
Srodon, J., Morgan, D. J., Eslinger, E. V., Eberl, D. D. and Karlinger, M. R., 1986 Chemistry of illite/smectite and end-member illite Clays & Clay Minerals 34 368 – 378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velde, B., 1965 Experimental determination of muscovite polymorph stabilities Amer. Mineral. 50 436 – 449.Google Scholar
Velde, B. and Hower, J., 1963 Petrological significance of illite polymorphism in Paleozoic sedimentary rocks Amer. Mineral. 48 1239 – 1254.Google Scholar
Walker, J. R. and Thompson, G. R., 1990 Structural variations in chlorite and illite in a diagenetic sequence from the Imperial Valley, California Clays & Clay Minerals 38 315 – 321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wintsch, R. P., 1978 A chemical approach to the preferred orientation of mica Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 89 1715 – 1718.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yau, Y. C., Peacor, D. R. and McDowell, S. D., 1987 Smectite-to-illite reactions in Salton Sea shales: A transmission and analytical electron microscopy study J. Sediment. Petrol. 57 335 – 342.Google Scholar
Yau, Y. C., Peacor, D. R., Beans, R. E., Essene, E. J., Lee, H. J., Kuo, L. C. and Cosca, M. A., 1987 Hydrothermal experiments on candidate packing materials of smectite, illite and basalt Clays & Clay Minerals 35 241 – 250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yau, Y. C., Peacor, D. R., Beans, R. E., Essene, E. J. and McDowell, S. D., 1988 Microstructures, formation mechanisms, and depth-zoning of phyllosilicates in geo-thermally altered shales, Salton Sea, California Clays & Clay Minerals 36 1 – 10.Google Scholar
Yoder, H. S. and Eugster, H. P., 1955 Synthetic and natural muscovites Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 8 225 – 280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar