Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:38:22.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The effect of hydrochemical conditions and pH of the environment on phyllosilicate transformations in the weathering zone of pyrite-bearing schists in Wieściszowice (SW Poland)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

Ł. Uzarowicz*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW, ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warszawa, Poland
B. Šegvic
Affiliation:
Institute of Applied Geosciences, Technische UniversitätDarmstadt, Schnittspahnstraβe 9, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
M. Michalik
Affiliation:
Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, ul. Oleandry 2a, 30-063 Krakow, Poland
P. Bylina
Affiliation:
Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences SGGW, ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warszawa, Poland Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials, ul. Postępu 9, 02-676 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The influence of hydrological conditions and the pH of the environment on chlorite and mica transformations in the acidic weathering zone of pyrite-bearing schists was studied. Phyllosilicate transformations were investigated in the area of the abandoned pyrite open-pit mine in Wieściszowice (Lower Silesia, SW Poland) using X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and chemical methods. (Mg, Fe)-chlorite, micas (muscovite and paragonite), quartz, feldspars and pyrite were reported to be the most abundant minerals occurring in pyrite-bearing schists. Phyllosilicate transformations were significantly stronger in dry conditions than in wet ones. This conclusion was supported by the fact that the inherited phyllosilicates predominated in the clay mineral fraction of waterlogged saprolites, whereas the secondary swelling minerals were minor components. In dry and extremely acidic saprolites (pH < 3), trioctahedral chlorite was dissolved and transformed into clay minerals (e.g. smectite and kaolinite), whereas swelling clays (smectite mainly) were formed at the expense of dioctahedral micas. The pH of water is an important factor influencing phyllosilicate transformations in waterlogged conditions. The phyllosilicate alterations under the influence of extremely acidic waters (pH < 3) were more advanced than in moderately acidic ones (pH of 4.6), as the secondary clay minerals seemed to be represented exclusively by smectite in the former, whereas HIMs and mixed-layer minerals such as R0 I-S-Ch, R0 I-S, as well as R1 Ch-V and/or R1 Ch-S occurred in the latter.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Presented at the Euroclay 2011 Conference at Antalya, Turkey

References

Aoudjit, H., Elsass, F., Righi, D. & Robert, M. (1996) Mica weathering in acidic soils by analytical electron microscopy. Clay Minerals, 31, 319–332.Google Scholar
April, R.H., Keller, D. & Driscoll, T. (2004) Smectite in Spodosols from the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Clay Minerals, 39, 99–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bain, D.C. (1977) The weathering of ferruginous chlorite in a podzol from Argyllshire, Scotland. Geoderma, 17, 193–208.Google Scholar
Bain, D.C. & Russell, J.D. (1981) Swelling minerals in a basalt and its weathering products from Morvern, Scotland: II. Swelling chlorite. Clay Minerals, 16, 203–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bain, D.C., Mellor, A. & Wilson, M.J. (1990) Nature and origin of an aluminous vermiculitic weathering product in acid soils from upland catchments in Scotland. Clay Minerals, 25, 467–475.Google Scholar
Balcerzak, E., Dobrzyński, D. & Parafiniuk, J. (1992) Wpływ przeobrażeń mineralnych na skład wód w strefie wietrzenia łupków pirytonośnych w Wieściszowicach, Rudawy Janowickie, Sudety Zachodnie, Polska. Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae, 62, 75–93.(Polish with English abstract).Google Scholar
Banfield, J.F. & Murakami, T. (1998) Atomic-resolution transmission electron microscope evidence for the mechanism by which chlorite weathers to 1:1 semiregular chlorite-vermiculite. American Mineralogist, 83, 348–357.Google Scholar
Banks, D., Younger, P.L., Arnesen, R., Iversen, E.R. & Sheila, B.B. (1997) Mine-water chemistry: the good, the bad and the ugly. Environmental Geology, 32, 157–174.Google Scholar
Barnhisel, R.I. & Bertsch, P.M. (1989) Chlorites and Hydroxy-Interlayered Vermiculite and Smectite. Pp. 729–788 in: Minerals in Soil Environments (Dixon, J.B. & Weed, S.B., editors). Soil Science Society of America, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Bigham, J.M., Schwertmann, U., Traina, S.J., Winland, R.L. & Wolf, M. (1996) Schwertmannite and the chemical modeling of iron in acid sulphate waters. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 60, 2111–2121.Google Scholar
Brandt, F., Bosbach, D., Krawczyk-Bärsch, E., Arnold, T. & Bernhard, G. (2003) Chlorite dissolution in the acid pH-range: A combined microscopic and macroscopic approach. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 67, 1451–1461.Google Scholar
Brindley, G.W. & Brown, G., editors (1980) Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals and their X-ray Identification. Mineralogical Society, Monograph no. 5, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnicelli, S., Mirabella, A., Cecchini, G. & Sanesi, G. (1997) Weathering of chlorite to a low-charge expandable mineral in a Spodosol on the Apennine Mountains, Italy. Clays and Clay Minerals, 45, 28–41.Google Scholar
Cho, H.D. & Mermut, A.R. (1992) Evidence for halloysite formation from weathering of ferruginous chlorite. Clays and Clay Minerals, 40, 608–619.Google Scholar
Churchman, G.J. (1980) Clay minerals formed from micas and chlorites in some New Zealand soils. Clay Minerals, 15, 59–76.Google Scholar
De Kimpe, C. & Miles, N. (1992) Formation of swelling clay minerals by sulfide oxidation in some metamorphic rocks and related soils of Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 72, 263–270.Google Scholar
Dixon, J.B., Hosser, L.R., Senkayi, A.L. & Egashira, K. (1982) Mineralogical properties of lignite overburden as they relate to mine spoil reclamation. Pp. 169–191 in: Acid Sulfate Weathering (Kittrick, J.A., Fanning, D.S. & Hossner, L.R., editors). Soil Science Society of America Special Publication, no. 10, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Drits, V.A. & Sakharov, B.A. (1976) X-ray Structural Analysis of Mixed-layer Minerals. Nauka, Moscow (in Russian).Google Scholar
Dubiková, M., Cambier, P., Šucha, V. & Čaplovičová, M. (2002) Experimental soil acidification. Applied Geochemistry, 17, 245–257.Google Scholar
España, J.S., Pamo, E.L., Santofimia, E., Aduvire, O., Reyes, J. & Barettino, D. (2005) Acid mine drainage in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (Odiel river watershed, Huelva, SW Spain): Geochemistry, mineralogy and environmental implications. Applied Geochemistry, 20, 1320–1356.Google Scholar
Galan, E., Carretero, M.I. & Fernandez-Caliani, J.C. (1999) Effect of acid mine drainage on clay minerals suspended in the Tinto River (Río Tinto , Spain). An experimental approach. Clay Minerals, 34, 99–108.Google Scholar
Gillot, F., Righi, D. & Elsass, F. (2000) Pedogenic smectites in podzols from central Finland: an analytical electron microscopy study. Clays and Clay Minerals, 48, 655–664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamer, M., Graham, R.C., Amrhein, C. & Bozhilov, K.N. (2003) Dissolution of ripidolite (Mg,Fe-chlorite) in organic and inorganic acid solutions. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 67, 654–661.Google Scholar
Hubert, F., Caner, L., Meunier, A. & Lanson, B. (2009) Advances in characterization of soil clay mineralogy using X-ray diffraction: from decomposition to profile fitting. European Journal of Soil Science, 60, 1093–1105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hubert, F., Caner, L., Meunier, A. & Ferrage, E. (2012) Unraveling complex <2 μm clay mineralogy from soils using X-ray diffraction profile modeling on particle-size sub-fractions: Implications for soil pedogenesis and reactivity. American Mineralogist, 97, 384–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, M.L. (1962) Interlayering of expansible layer silicates in soils by chemical weathering. Clays and Clay Minerals, 11, 29–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, M.L. (1975) Soil Chemical Analysis – Advanced Course. Published by the author, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Jaskólski, S. (1964) Złoże łupków pirytonośnych w Wieściszowicach na Dolnym Śląsku i próba wyś-wietlenia jego genezy. Annales de la Société géologique de Pologne (Annales Societatis Geologorum Poloniae), 34, 29–63.(Polish with English summary).Google Scholar
Johnson, D.B. (2003) Chemical and microbiological characteristics of mineral spoils and drainage waters at abandoned coal and metal mines. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 3, 47–66.Google Scholar
Kodama, H. & Schnitzer, M. (1973) Dissolution of chlorite minerals by fulvic acid. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 53, 240–243.Google Scholar
Komnitsas, K., Xenidis, A. & Adam, K. (1995) Oxidation of pyrite and arsenopyrite in sulphidic spoils in Lavrion. Minerals Engineering, 8, 1443–1454.Google Scholar
Krasil’nikov, P.V. (1997) Transformation of phyllosilicates in the course of oxidation of sulfide-containing soil-forming rocks. Eurasian Soil Science, 30, 1117–1126.Google Scholar
Lagaly, G., Ogawa, M. & Dékány, I. (2006) Clay mineral organic interactions. Pp. 309–377 in: Handbook of Clay Science (Bergaya, F., Theng, B. & Lagaly, G., editors). Elsevier.Google Scholar
Lanson, B. (1993) DECOMPXR, X-ray diffraction pattern decomposition program. Poitiers, France, ERM, 48 pp.Google Scholar
Lanson, B. & Besson, G. (1992) Characterization of the end of smectite-to-illite transformation: decomposition of the X-ray patterns. Clays and Clay Minerals, 40, 40–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lintnerová, O., Šucha, V. & Streško, V. (1999) Mineralogy and geochemistry of acid mine Feprecipitates from the main Slovak mining regions. Geologica Carpatica, 50, 395–404.Google Scholar
Madejová, J. (2003) FTIR techniques in clay mineral studies. Vibrational Spectroscopy, 31, 1–10.Google Scholar
Mazur, S., Aleksandrowski, P., Kryza, R. & Oberc-Dziedzic, T. (2006) The Variscan Orogen in Poland. Geological Quarterly, 50, 89–118.Google Scholar
Mehra, O.P. & Jackson, M.L. (1960) Iron oxide removal from soils and clays by dithionite-citrate system buffered with sodium bicarbonate. Clays and Clay Minerals, Proceedings of 7th National Conference, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK, 317–327.Google Scholar
Meunier, A. (2007) Soil hydroxy-interlayered minerals: a re-interpretation of their crystallochemical properties. Clays and Clay Minerals, 55, 380–388.Google Scholar
Moore, D.M. & Reynolds, R.C. (1997) X-Ray Diffraction and the Identification and Analysis of Clay Minerals. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Murad, E. & Rojík, P. (2003) Iron-rich precipitates in a mine drainage environment: Influence of pH on mineralogy. American Mineralogist, 88, 1915–1918.Google Scholar
Murakami, T., Isobe, H., Sato, T. & Ohnuki, T. (1996) Weathering of chlorite in a quartz-chlorite schist: I. Mineralogical and chemical changes. Clays and Clay Minerals, 44, 244–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mystkowski, K. (1999) ClayLab, a computer program for processing and interpretation of X-ray diffractograms of clays. Conference of European Clay Groups Association, EUROCLAY 1999. Book of abstracts, Krakow, Poland, pp. 114–115.Google Scholar
Parafiniuk, J. (1991) Fibroferrite, slavikite and pickeringite from the oxidation zone of pyrite-bearing schists in Wieściszowice (Lower Silesia). Mineralogia Polonica, 22, 3–16.Google Scholar
Parafiniuk, J. (1996) Sulfate minerals and their origin in the weathering zone of the pyrite-bearing schists at Wieściszowice (Rudawy Janowickie Mts., Western Sudetes). Acta Geologica Polonica, 46, 353–414.Google Scholar
Parafiniuk, J. & Siuda, R. (2006) Schwertmannite precipitated from acid mine drainage in the Western Sudetes (SW Poland) and its arsenate sorption capacity. Geological Quarterly, 50, 474–486.Google Scholar
Rich, C.I. (1968) Hydroxy interlayers in expansible layer silicates. Clays and Clay Minerals, 16, 15–30.Google Scholar
Ross, G.J. (1969) Acid dissolution of chlorites: release of magnesium, iron and aluminum and mode of acid attack. Clays and Clay Minerals, 17, 347–354.Google Scholar
Ross, G.J. & Kodama, H. (1976) Experimental alteration of a chlorite into a regularly interstratified chloritevermiculite by chemical oxidation. Clays and Clay Minerals, 24, 183–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, J.D. & Fraser, A.R. (1994) Infrared methods. Pp. 11–67 in: Clay Mineralogy: Spectroscopic and Chemical Determinative Methods (Wilson, M.J., editor). Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Singh, B., Wilson, M.J., McHardy, W.J., Fraser, A.R. & Merrington, G. (1999) Mineralogy and geochemistry of ochre sediments from acid mine drainage near a disused mine in Cornwall, UK. Clay Minerals, 34, 301–317.Google Scholar
Skiba, M. (2001) The origin of kaolinite from the Tatra Mts. podzols. Mineralogia Polonica, 32, 67–76.Google Scholar
Skiba, M. (2007) Clay mineral formation during podzolization in an alpine environment of the Tatra Mountains, Poland. Clays and Clay Minerals, 35, 618–634.Google Scholar
Skiba, M. & Skiba, S. (2005) Chemical and mineralogical index of podzolization of the granite regolith soils. Polish Journal of Soil Science, 38, 153–161.Google Scholar
Środoń, J. (2006) Identification and quantitative analysis of clay minerals. Pp. 765–787 in: Handbook of Clay Science (Bergaya, F., Theng, B. & Lagaly, G., editors). Elsevier.Google Scholar
Šucha, V., Dubiková, M., Cambier, P., Elsass, F. & Pernes, M. (2002) Effect of acid mine drainage on the mineralogy of a dystric cambisol. Geoderma, 110, 151–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uzarowicz, Ł. & Skiba, S. (2011) Technogenic soils developed on mine spoils containing iron sulphides: Mineral transformations as an indicator of pedogenesis. Geoderma, 163, 95–108.Google Scholar
Uzarowicz, Ł., Skiba, S., Skiba, M. & Michalik, M. (2008) Mineral transformations in soils on spoil heaps of an abandoned pyrite mine in Wieściszowice (Rudawy Janowickie Mts., Lower Silesia, Poland). Polish Journal of Soil Science, 41, 183–193.Google Scholar
Uzarowicz, Ł., Skiba, S., Skiba, M. & Šegvić, B. (2011) Clay-mineral formation in soils developed in the weathering zone of pyrite-bearing schists: a case study from the abandoned pyrite mine in Wieściszowice, Lower Silesia, SW Poland. Clays and Clay Minerals, 59, 581–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Breemen, N. (1982) Genesis, morphology, and classification of acid sulfate soils in coastal plains. Pp. 95–108 in: Acid Sulfate Weathering (Kittrick, J.A., Fanning, D.S. & Hossner, L.R., editors). Soil Science Society of America Special Publication, no. 10, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
van der Marel, H.W. & Beutelspracher, H. (1976) Atlas of Infrared Spectroscopy of Clay Minerals and their Admixtures. Elsevier.Google Scholar
Velde, B. & Meunier, A. (2008) The Origin of Clay Minerals in Soils and Weathered Rocks. Springer.Google Scholar
Wilson, M.J. (1999) The origin and formation of clay minerals in soils: past, present and future perspectives. Clay Minerals, 34, 7–25.Google Scholar
Wilson, M.J. (2004) Weathering of primary rockforming minerals: processes, products and rates. Clay Minerals, 39, 233–266.Google Scholar
Wolkersdorfer, C. & Bowell, R., editors (2005) Contemporary reviews of mine water studies in Europe, Part 2. Mine Water and the Environment, 24, 2–37.Google Scholar

A correction has been issued for this article: