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Palygorskite in Indian tropical soils: a clay mineral of pedogenic, geogenic, or climate-induced origin – a mechanistic review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2024

Pankaj Srivastava Open the ORCID record for Pankaj Srivastava [Opens in a new window]  and
Dilip Kumar Pal Open the ORCID record for Dilip Kumar Pal [Opens in a new window]
Pankaj Srivastava*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India
Dilip Kumar Pal
Affiliation:
Formerly Principal Scientist, Division of Soil Resource Studies, Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440033, Maharashtra, India
*
Corresponding author: Pankaj Srivastava; Email: pankajps@gmail.com
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Abstract

Most clay minerals are characterized by a platy morphology. By contrast, palygorskite has a fibrous morphology and is structurally distinct from the typical 1:1 and 2:1 layer structures. Diverse opinions exist on the origin of palygorskite in soils. Many authors suggest that palygorskite forms after smectite. Others favor its authigenesis during pedogenic processes or its inheritance from the parent material. This review provides a critical synthesis on the origin of palygorskite in the semi-arid-tropical (SAT) Vertisols and arid calcic soils of the Thar Desert of India. It also highlights the specific genetic pathway for the presence of palygorskite in the soils. The ubiquitous association of smectite with palygorskite is inadequate to explain the formation at the expense of smectite, because at pH 8.2 and above the smectite structure is subjected to dissolution to create soluble Si and Al, and the recrystallization of the soluble Si and Al to form palygorskite may not be possible in the Vertisols of the Indian SAT environment. Thus, mildly to moderate alkaline pedochemcial environments of the SAT Vertisols do not favor authigenic precipitation of the palygorskite in such soils. This review shows that the presence of palygorskite in the SAT Vertisols is due to its inheritance from the exhumed inter-trappean beds, infra-trappean beds, and bole beds. This view on the genesis of the palygorskite is also justified by its presence in weakly developed calcic soils of the Thar Desert as detrital flux from the adjoining marine sedimentary rocks.

Keywords

bole bedscalcic soilsinfra-trappean bedsinter-trappean bedsmarine sedimentsPalygorskite genesisSAT VertisolsThar Desert
Type
Review
Information
Clays and Clay Minerals , Volume 72 , 2024 , e11
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Clay Minerals Society

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