Shale formations are composed of clays, feldspars, carbonates, and quartz as major ingredients. Among all the constituents, clays are the most important parameter from an application point of view because of their possibly sensitive nature; they are further categorised as migrating (illite, kaolinite, and chlorite) and reactive (smectite and mixed layers) clays. Smectite is always considered as...

Ice formation on aerosol particles is a process of crucial importance to Earth's climate and the environmental sciences, but it is not understood at the molecular level. This is partly because the nature of active sites, local surface features where ice growth commences, is still unclear. Here we report direct electron-microscopic observations of deposition growth of aligned ice crystals on fel...

Hyperspectral remote-sensing in the reflected infrared and thermal infrared regions offers a unique and efficient alternative for mineral mapping, as most minerals exhibit spectral features in these regions, mainly in the shortwave and longwave infrared. Airborne hyperspectral data in both spectral regions, acquired with the AisaFENIX and AisaOWL (Specim) sensors over Makhtesh Ramon in Israel, ...

The unique properties of neutron interaction with materials have long been applied to the study of geological materials, with Shull and Smart using them in 1949 to determine the antiferromagnetic structure of manganosite (MnO). Neutron diffraction provides an accurate method for crystal structure determination of hydrous phases, particularly ices, and investigations of cation ordering of elemen...

In this work, grinding or microcutting tools in the form of pellets were manufactured using a bounded alumina abrasive grains. The bound used is a vitreous material containing quartz feldspars, kaolinite and a quantity of hematite. The pellets were used in glass grinding process to replace the free abrasive grains lapping process. The study of the elaborated pellets were done to define their ef...

Thermoluminescence (TL) studies of insulators, including crystals of minerals such as calcite, quartz or zircon, have resulted in the development of a wider range of applications in the fields of radiation dosimetry and archaeological and geological dating. Most conventional TL measurements are made by recording light emission during heating by means of broad-band optical filters and blue-sensi...

Introduction: A TES spectral study of low albedo (LA) deposits within the Amazonis Planitia of Mars revealed that the derived bulk composition of these deposits contain very low silica contents (Fig. 1), classifying some of the deposits as foidites [1]. A foidite is an igneous rock in which feldspathoid minerals constitute ≥60% of the light-colored mineralogy; it is the inclusion of feldspathoi...

A suite of 36 surface sediment samples, taken between 10 and 100 m water depth in Mejillones Bay (Northern Chile), were analyzed for mineralogy, grain size, total organic carbon, Al, and heavy metal content (Cd, Zn, Ni, Mn, V, Mo). Quartz and feldspars were the main lithogenic minerals and carbonate the predominant biogenic mineral. Sediments were fine sands in the shallow zone and organic silt...

The purpose of this study is to understand mineral diagenesis authigenic mineral and the effect of climate on mineral of Pleistocene-Holocene sediment deposits in the Southern Kenya Rift. Lake Magadi unique geologic settings are characterized by extreme alkalinity and high silica activities. The mineralogical analysis was achieved by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM...

Bentonite is a claystone formed by complex mineralogical mixture, composed of montmorillonite, illite, and accessory minerals like quartz, cristobalite, feldspars, carbonates, minor amounts iron oxy-hydroxides. presents complexity at various scales: (1): single mineral may present different chemical composition within the same quarry (e.g., feldspars solid solutions); (2): montmorillonite varia...