Ralph E. Grim

Bio: Ralph E. Grim is an academic researcher from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The author has contributed to research in topics: Clay minerals & Phase (matter). The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 20 publications receiving 1083 citations.

Clay Mineralogy: The clay mineral composition of soils and clays is providing an understanding of their properties.

Abstract: The structures of the clay minerals are reasonably well known, but greater detail and more precision are needed if the properties of clays and soils are to be fully understood. For example, the selective adsorptive and catalytic properties and the reaction with organic materials vary with the character of the clay mineral, but the structural factors that control such properties are not well understood. Research is urgently needed on the structure of pure clay minerals and on the reactions of pure clay minerals with organic and inorganic materials. Much past research on clay-mineral reactions has little fundamental value because the clay that was used was composed of a mixture of minerals which were not well characterized. It is not a simple matter to find pure samples of many of the clay minerals, and to a considerable extent progress depends on finding such pure minerals or preparing them in the laboratory.

Clay Mineral Investigation of Sediments in the Northern Gulf of Mexico1

Abstract: Clay mineral studies of recent sediments from a diversity of environments in the vicinity of Rockport, Texas, have been made as part of American Petroleum Institute Project 51

Mineralogy, chemistry, and diagenesis of tuffs in the Sucker Creek Formation (Miocene), eastern Oregon

Abstract: The lacustrine Sucker Creek Formation (Miocene) of eastern Oregon includes unaltered vitric tuffs as well as tuffs altered to the following diagenetic fades: (1) bentonite, (2) interbedded bentonite and opal-CT, (3) K-clinoptilolite, and (4) Ca-clinoptilolite. Bentonite beds contain Fe-rich smectite (8–10 wt. % Fe2O3), quartz, plagioclase, and Ca-clinoptilolite. Opal-CT-rich layers contain inorganic silica (opal-CT), Fe-rich smectite, and minor diatoms. K-clinoptilolite beds typically contain clinoptilolite that can be extremely K-rich (≤7.6 wt. % K2O), opal-CT, smectite, plagioclase, and K-feldspar. This diagenetic facies also includes smectitic tuff and unaltered tuff. Ca-clinoptilolite beds contain Ca-clinoptilolite, quartz, K-feldspar, smectite, and illite. Based on its chemistry and mineralogy, the bentonite appears to have been derived from dacitic volcanic ash. Chemical considerations and the close spatial relationship between beds of bentonite and opal-CT suggest that the diagenetic alteration of glass to smectite provided silica to the adjacent opal-CT beds. Based on the presence of late-stage Ca-clinoptilolite, alteration appears to have proceeded in a relatively closed chemical system. Based on the composition of preserved vitric tuff, the zeolitic tuffs appear to be derived from rhyolitic ash, which diagenetically altered in an open hydrologic system and produced vertical zonations in mineralogy. In this model, bentonite horizons at the top of the K-clinoptilolite diagenetic fades formed by reaction of volcanic glass with dilute fluids that had a relatively low (Na+ + K+ + Ca2+)/H+ activity ratio and $${\rm{a}}_{\rm{{H}}_4{\rm{SiO}_4}}$$ , whereas the underlying K-clinoptilolite beds formed from reactions between glass and dilute fluids having a higher (Na+ + K+ + Ca2+)/H+ activity ratio and $${\rm{a}}_{\rm{{H}}_4{\rm{SiO}_4}}$$ . Unaltered vitric ash between these beds may represent zones of higher permeability that inhibited secondary mineral alteration. Ca-clinoptilo-lite-rich beds appear to have undergone alteration similar to K-clinoptilolite-rich beds as well as to have been subjected to later, low-temperature (perhaps 75°–150°C) hydrothermal alteration which enhanced cation exchange in the zeolite and formed quartz from opal-CT.

Mineralogy and Sedimentation of Recent Deep-Sea Clay in the Atlantic Ocean and Adjacent Seas and Oceans

Abstract: Semiquantitative mineral analysis has been done by X-ray diffraction on the < 2 μ- and 2–20 μ-size fractions of approximately five hundred Recent deep-sea core samples from the Atlantic, Antarctic, western Indian Oceans, and adjacent seas. Relative abundances of montmorillonite, illite, kaolinite, chlorite, gibbsite, quartz, amphibole, clinoptilolite-heulandite(?), and pyrophyllite(?) were determined. Mixed-layer clay minerals, feldspars, and dolomite were also observed but not quantitatively evaluated. From the patterns of mineral distribution, the following conclusions appear warranted: Most Recent Atlantic Ocean deep-sea clay is detritus from the continents. The formation of minerals in situ on the ocean bottom is relatively unimportant in the Atlantic but may be significant in parts of the southwestern Indian Ocean. Mineralogical analysis of the fine fraction of Atlantic Ocean deep-sea sediments is a useful indicator of sediment provenance. Kaolinite, gibbsite, pyrophyllite, mixed-layer minerals, and chlorite contribute the most unequivocal provenance information because they have relatively restricted loci of continental origin. Topographic control over mineral distribution by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean precludes significant eolian transport by the jet stream and emphasizes the importance of transport to and within that part of the deep-sea by processes operative at or near the sediment-water interface. Transport of continent-derived sediment to the equatorial Atlantic is primarily by rivers draining from South America and by rivers and wind from Africa. The higher proportion of kaolinite and gibbsite in deep-sea sediments adjacent to small tropical South American rivers reflects a greater intensity of lateritic weathering than is observed near the mouths of the larger rivers. This may be explained by a greater variety of pedogenic conditions in the larger drainage basins, resulting in an assemblage with proportionately less lateritic material in the detritus transported by the larger rivers despite their quantitatively greater influence on deep-sea sediment accumulation. In the South Atlantic Ocean, the fine-fraction mineral assemblage of surface sediment in the Argentine Basin is sufficiently unlike that adjacent to the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to preclude it as a major Recent sediment source for that basin. The southern Argentine Continental Shelf, the Scotia Ridge, and the Weddell Sea arc mineralogically more likely immediate sources. Transport from the Weddell Sea by the Antarctic Bottom Water may be responsible for the northward transport of fine-fraction sediment along parts of the western South Atlantic as far north as the Equator.

Adsorbents: Fundamentals and Applications

Abstract: Preface. 1. Introductory Remarks. 2. Fundamental Factors for Designing Adsorbent. 3. Sorbent Selection: Equilibrium Isotherms, Diffusion, Cyclic Processes, and Sorbent Selection Criteria. 4. Pore Size Distribution. 5. Activated Carbon. 6. Silica Gel, MCM, and Activated Alumina. 7. Zeolites and Molecular Sieves. 8. &pi -Complexation Sorbents and Applications. 9. Carbon Nanotubes, Pillared Clays, and Polymeric Resins. 10. Sorbents for Applications. Author Index. Subject Index.

An Empirical Model for the Complex Dielectric Permittivity of Soils as a Function of Water Content

Abstract: The recent measurements on the dielectric properties of soils have shown that the variation of dielectric constant with moisture content depends on soil types. The observed dielectric constant increases only slowly with moisture content up to a transition point. Beyond the transition it increases rapidly with moisture content. The moisture value at transition region was found to be higher for high clay content soils than for sandy soils. Many mixing formulas reported in the literature were compared with, and were found incompatible with, the measured dielectric variations of soil-water mixtures. A simple empirical model was proposed to describe the dielectric behavior of the soil-water mixtures. This model employs the mixing of either the dielectric constants or the refraction indices of ice, water, rock, and air, and treats the transition moisture value as an adjustable parameter. The calculated mixture dielectric constants from the model were found to be in reasonable agreement with the measured results over the entire moisture range of 0-0.5 cm3/cm3. The transition moistures derived from the model range from 0.16 to 0.33 and are strongly correlated with the wilting points of the soils estimated from their textures. This relationship between transition moisture and wilting point provides a means of estimating soil dielectric properties on the basis of texture information.

Tectonic evolution of Late Cenozoic arc-continent collision in Taiwan

Abstract: The island of Taiwan is an active orogen formed by the collision between the Luzon arc and the Asian continent. The kinematic progression of the arc-continent collision can be reconstructed by superimposing the restored paleopositions of Luzon arc upon the precollisional Asian continental margin. The geological history of the collision can be interpreted from the rock records of the mountain ranges of Taiwan. By incorporating geological information into plate kinematics, the collision can be attributed to the northwesterly impingement of the Luzon arc upon the continental margin in the last 12 million years. During the initial stage of the collision, some of the continental materials might have been metamorphosed in the deep subduction zone, but no distinct effects can be perceived in the sedimentary record. In the Mio-Pliocene time (about 5 Ma), the accretionary wedge grew large enough to become a sediment source for the Luzon forearc basin and to induce foreland subsidence on the continental margin. In the early late Pliocene (about 3 Ma), drastic collision caused rapid uplift of the collision orogen that shed voluminous orogenic sediments into the forearc and foreland basins. Continued collision progressively accreted the forearc and foreland basins to the collision orogen from northmore » to south to the present configuration.« less