The formation of bentonites via alteration of volcanic glassy rocks is associated with apparently contradictory mineralogical, geological and geochemical characteristics, which remain poorly understood. This contribution attempts to answer some of the questions based on the work carried out in our laboratory over the past 15 y. The first question concerns the formation of opal-CT-free bentonites from acidic precursors. It is suggested that the formation of opal-CT-free bentonites is closely related to the mechanism of eruption and emplacement of parent volcanic rocks if the temperature of the parent glass after emplacement is high and/or the establishment of hydraulic gradients coupled with high permeability after deposition of volcanic glass (i.e. diagenetic alteration) if the temperature of the parent glass is low. The second question pertains to the behaviour of Fe during bentonite formation. Based on mineralogical and geological characteristics of different bentonite deposits, it is suggested that Fe is present mainly as Fe2+ and hence may be mobilized during alteration. Oxidation of Fe may take place when bentonites are exposed to more oxidizing conditions close to the surface. Assignment of Fe as Fe2+ increases the layer charge of smectites and decreases significantly the range of layer charge. Thus the smectites may have considerably different properties when formed compared with their counterparts on the surface. The third question considers the possible influence of parent-rock chemistry on the crystal chemistry of smectites. It is proposed that the parent rock may affect the chemistry of the neoformed smectites to some degree; therefore the smectite chemistry may provide indications about the geochemical affinities of the parent rock.

Intense fibrosity develops in wet porous NaCl crystal aggregates (grain size 250–500 µm) held in a temperature (T) gradient field (0.5–4°C/mm) at temperatures between 20 and 50–60°C. In situ microscopic observation of the process shows that fibre growth is associated with T-gradient driven motion of tiny gas (air, water vapour) bubbles present in the saturated intercrystalline aqueous NaCl solution. Gas bubbles move through the intercrystalline pore fluid into the cold direction. They only move if they are next to an NaCl crystal; bubbles that are ‘free’ do not move. Each bubble is ‘pushed’ into the cold direction by a growing crystal fibre of the same diameter as the bubble itself. Fibres apparently grow due to oversaturation of the NaCl solution at the hot side of the gas bubble. Crystals dissolve at the cold side of the gas bubbles, apparently by undersaturation of the NaCl solution there. Thus, bubbles dissolve their way through NaCl-crystals and aggregates. Intense fibrosity develops within weeks.

The Seebeck coefficient is an important parameter of thermoelectric materials, which is routinely measured by commercial or home-made equipment based on different methods. However, due to various temperature offsets in the measurement, the determination of temperature gradient can be inaccurate, leading to a large uncertainty in Seebeck coefficient. To elucidate the influence of the inaccurate temperature gradient on the determination of Seebeck coefficient, an error analysis has been performed on a commercial system. Several potential factors that may affect the establishment of temperature gradient were discussed in detail. A comparison between the single point method and the slope method was made to verify which is more accurate to calculate the Seebeck coefficient from the raw measurement data. It is suggested that the slope method is more preferable and the single point method can also be accurate enough when a relatively large temperature gradient is adopted.

This paper describes a comparison between balloon radio-soundings made in summer at the Concordia station, Dome C, Antarctica and coincident model-based meteorological analyses. The comparison allows the assessment of the reliability of the analyses in summer. This allows the use of the winter analyses within an estimated range of uncertainty, while the first in situ measurements are just becoming available. The astronomical interest is to produce an estimate of atmospheric turbulence during the Antarctic winter at this very promising site. For this work the 6-hourly ECMWF operational analyses were used, concurrently with the data obtained in situ by the radio-sounding made at Concordia with standard meteorological balloons and sondes during four summer seasons (November–January), from December 2000 to the end of January 2004.

The problem of a stable stratified fluid heated by a point source of heat at various depths is treated in this paper. A hot plume is formed with a series of layer around and above it. Quantitative estimates for the criterion of onset of doubly diffusive instability are obtained in this work. The linear differential system governing stability is then solved. The results show that the stationary onset of this doubly diffusive problem caused by a point source may be led to a similar form of small-gap Taylor- Couette problem.