Here is a comprehensive and up to-do-date presentation of the origins, and properties of clay minerals at the Earth s surface. The text reviews the relatively simple laws that govern the chemical or isotopic composition and the crystalline structure of clays, and then discusses their genesis and alteration. Concluding chapters show that clay minerals can form in variety of different environments: meteorites, lavas, subduction zones, among others.
Inhalt
Crystal Structure - Species - Crystallisation.- Crystal Chemistry of Clay Minerals.- Energy Balances: Thermodynamics - Kinetics.- Isotopic Composition of Clay Minerals.- Surface Properties - Behaviour Rules - Microtextures.- Clays in Soils and Weathered Rocks.- Clays in Sedimentary Environments.- Diagenesis and Very Low-Grade Metamorphism.- Hydrothermal Process - Thermal Metamorphism.- Clays Under Extreme Conditions.