Practical charts to identify the predominant clay mineral based on oxide composition of clayey soils

Abstract

This study proposes some useful practical charts representing the relationships between oxide composition and the type of predominant clay mineral present in clay soils. In order to produce the charts, the data set are collected from published literature. Some useful classification schemes for predominant clay mineral type were obtained by using binary and ternary graphs of oxide composition data. The most successful relations indicating the type of clay mineral have been found on SiO2 versus Al2O3 + Fe2O3 + FeO, SiO2 versus MgO + CaO + Na2O + K2O binary plots, SiO2 Al2O3 Others and SiO2 - Al2O3 - K2O ternary plots. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.