Mineralogy and Sedimentation of Recent Deep-Sea Clay in the Atlantic Ocean and Adjacent Seas and Oceans
01 Jul 1965-Geological Society of America Bulletin (Geological Society of America)-Vol. 76, Iss: 7, pp 803-832
TL;DR: In this article, the relative abundances of montmorillonite, illite, kaolinite, chlorite, gibbsite, pyrophyllite, mixed-layer clay minerals, feldspars, and dolomite were determined.
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.
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TL;DR: In this article, the bicarbonate-buffered Na2S2O4-citrate system was used for removing free iron oxides from latosolic soils, and the least destructive of iron silicate clays.
Abstract: The oxidation potential of dithionite (Na2S2O4) increases from 0.37 V to 0.73 V with increase in pH from 6 to 9, because hydroxyl is consumed during oxidation of dithionite. At the same time the amount of iron oxide dissolved in 15 minutes falls off (from 100 percent to less than 1 percent extracted) with increase in pH from 6 to 12 owing to solubility product relationships of iron oxides. An optimum pH for maximum reaction kinetics occurs at approximately pH 7.3. A buffer is needed to hold the pH at the optimum level because 4 moles of OH are used up in reaction with each mole of Na2S2O4 oxidized. Tests show that NaHCO3 effectively serves as a buffer in this application. Crystalline hematite dissolved in amounts of several hundred milligrams in 2 min. Crystalline goethite dissolved more slowly, but dissolved during the two or three 15 min treatments normally given for iron oxide removal from soils and clays. A series of methods for the extraction of iron oxides from soils and clays was tested with soils high in free iron oxides and with nontronite and other iron-bearing clays. It was found that the bicarbonate-buffered Na2S2O4-citrate system was the most effective in removal of free iron oxides from latosolic soils, and the least destructive of iron silicate clays as indicated by least loss in cation exchange capacity after the iron oxide removal treatment. With soils the decrease was very little but with the very susceptible Woody district nontronite, the decrease was about 17 percent as contrasted to 35–80 percent with other methods.
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TL;DR: In this article, the progress of the decomposition of residual clay is interpreted from a series of six samples of residual clays, and fourteen new chemical analyses of material from Medford, Massachusetts, diabase are presented as a check on the older data.
Abstract: Four districts furnished samples for a study in rock-weathering. Mineralogical data and fourteen new chemical analyses are presented in tables and diagrams. The granite gneiss of Morton, Minnesota, shows a marked loss of soda and lime in early stages of weathering but a more gradual loss of potash and baria. The progress of the decomposition is interpreted from a series of six samples of residual clay. Kaolinite is an end product. New chemical analyses of material from the Medford, Massachusetts, diabase are presented as a check on the older data. Ferrous and ferric iron determinations on samples of diabase and of glacial till suggest that the till is less oxidized than the underlying diabase, indicating preglacial weathering of the diabase. A diabase on the north shore of Lake Superior, Minnesota, is weathered locally to a depth of 40 feet but shows little chemical change except oxidation. An amphibolite from the Black Hills, South Dakota, yielded beidellite or related clay minerals by decomposition of i...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a detailed analysis of seafloor sediment cores from the Atlantic and Caribbean deep-sea cores, showing that the sediment layers are interbedded with late Pleistocene sediments of abyssal facies and commonly contain organic remains of shallow water origin.
Abstract: Studies of lithology, particle-size distributions, and micropaleontology and chemical analyses of 221 Atlantic and Caribbean deep-sea cores lead to new conceptions of processes of sedimentation, rates of sediment accumulation, Pleistocene chronology, and pre-Pleistocene history of the Atlantic Basin. Anomalous layers of sand, silt, and lutite occur widely in the deep basins of the Atlantic. Evidence for deposition of these layers by turbidity currents is as follows: (1) the layers occur in submarine canyons, in deltalike features at the terminal ends of canyons, in basins and depressions, never on isolated rises; (2) they are interbedded with late Pleistocene sediments of abyssal facies; (3) they are well-sorted and commonly graded; and (4) they commonly contain organic remains of shallow-water origin. Late Pleistocene slumping of compacted Neogene sediments along the banks of the Hudson Submarine Canyon at depths exceeding 3000 m indicates deepening of the canyon by erosion by turbidity currents. Variations in the planktonic Foraminifera in 108 of the cores and extrapolation of rates of sediment accumulation determined by 37 radiocarbon dates in 10 cores show that the last period of climate comparable with the present ended about 60,000 years ago. A faunal change indicating climatic amelioration, probably corresponding to the beginning of postglacial time, occurred about 11,000 years ago. Cross-correlations by micropaleontological methods establish the continuity of the climatic record deduced from the planktonic Foraminifera. Study of variation in the Planktonic Foraminifera leads to a different Pleistocene chronology from that proposed by Emiliani (1955). Cross-correlations of faunal zones and radio-carbon dates show that rates of continuous sediment accumulation, as opposed to turbidity-current deposition, range from 0.5 cm to 274.4 cm in 1000 years, depending upon bottom configuration. Cross-correlations by means of changes in coiling direction of planktonic Foraminifera give relative rates of sediment accumulation beyond the range of the radiocarbon method of dating. Forty one of the cores contain pre-Pleistocene sediments. The oldest sediment is Upper Cretaceous. Foraminifera and discoasters indicate the ages. Absence of sediment older than Late Cretaceous and thickness, 800–1000 m, of sediment in the Atlantic Basin as determined by seismic methods suggest that a large-scale reorganization of the Atlantic Basin took place in the Mesozoic.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the interpretation and significance of some of the clay mineral components of recent sediments and soil materials are discussed in detail and factors involved in analyzing these materials quantitatively are considered and a general procedure outlined.
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