Section 1: Soil Minerals and Weathering Flashcards
Mineral Components in soil
Primary and secondary minerals
Primary mineral
rock-forming minerals; formed at high temp and pressures; unstable under current atmospheric conditions; weather and release their ionic constituents
Secondary mineral
mineral products of weathering; form under current atmospheric conditions; may be unstable if conditions change but change is very small; typically clay sized <2 micrometers
Rocks that form soils
lithophile elements; felsic rock (O, Si, Al, K, Na)- quartz and feldspar; Mafic rock (Mg, Fe, Ca)- olivine, pyroxene, amphiboles
What composition of soil reflects earth crust composition
young soils
building blocks of soil minerals
tetrahedra and octahedra
soil mineral structures
2:1 minerals - tetrahedra: octahedra: tetrahedra
lattice
an array of points in space represents the periodic nature of a mineral structure
Principles of ionic solid structures: the “hard sphere” model
only applies to ionic solid structure like Si-O or Al-O for example – oxygen sheets filled with cations that are needed for electrical neutrality
Principles of ionic solid structures: Oxyanion (O2-)
makes up 47% (by weight), 94% (by volume) of the earths crust
Principles of ionic solid structures: Aluminosilicates
most common primary and secondary mineral of the lithosphere and soil; made of oxyanion lattice with smaller metallic cations; stuffed in the interstices of a close-packed structure
close-packing of spheres
hexagonal, cubic, etc - cations are in specific places to make it more stable- can extract tetrahedral and octahedral structure from these
close-packed structures has 2n tetrahedral and n octahedral holes - what is n?
n is the number of anions
a polyhedron of anions is formed around…
each cation in the mineral structure
coordination number (CN)
tells you how many anions (ligands) are bonded to the central cation - determined by the radius ratio
Radius ratio
r cation/ r anion; dictates the SIZE of the metal cation that can Stably occupy the holes creates by close-packed anions
tetrahedral holes are
smaller; accommodate Si4+, Al3+, Fe3+
octahedral holes are
larger; accommodate Mg2+, Al3+, Fe3+, Fe2+
Can Ca+, Na+ and K+ fit into tetrahedral and octahedral structures?
no, they are too large
Expected Ion Coordination
*minimum value thus 0.15-0.224 is trigonal, etc
RR - coordination type - CN
- 15 - trigonal-3
- 224 - tetrahedron -4
- 414 - octahedron - 6
- 732 - cube - 8
- 00 dodecahedron - 12
What coordination numbers does Si4+ have? Mg2+ and Fe2+?
Si 4+ always has CN 4
Mg2+ and Fe2+ always has CN 6
Bond Valence (v) definition
charge balanced by each bond; formal charge observed btw the central cation and each coordinating atom (anion or ligand)
Bond valence (v) equation
v= z cation/CN
z= valence CN= coordination number
octahedral or tetrahedral cation occupancy
based on electrical charge neutrality; uses bond valence theory to determine their filling
cations coordinating each anion
anion charge/ v cation
v = bond valence
is there charge neutrality on the edges of structures?
no, because the edge sites have hydroxyls
main class of soil minerals: phyllosilicates
formed by: a sharing of 3 oxygens to form hexagonal rings (Si2O5)2-; Si tetrahedra only share corners - stable
What is the most common form of point sharing for soil minerals?
the most common is edge sharing or 2 point sharing but the most stable is corner or 1 point sharing
Pauling Rules for Mineral Structures #1
a coordinated polyhedron of anions is found about each cation, the cation-anion distance being determined by the radius sum, and the coordination number of the cation by the radius ratio
Pauling Rules for Mineral Structures #2
in a stable coordination structure, the total strength of the valency bonds which reach an anion from all the neighboring cations is equal to the charge of the anion
Electrostatic valency principle (bond valence)
Pauling Rules for Mineral Structures #3
the existence of edges and particular of faces, common to two anion polyhedra in a coordinated structure decreases its stability; this effect is large for cation with high valency and small coordination number and is especially large when the radius ratio approaches the lower limit of stability of the polyhedron
Pauling Rules for Mineral Structures #4
in a crystal containing different cations, those of high valency and small CN tend to not share polyhedral elements with each other *have to optimize spacing
Pauling Rules for Mineral Structures #5
the number of essentially different kinds of constituents (polyhedra forming a structure) in a crystal tends to be small
*not much variability in the type of coordination environment
Common soil mineral structures
2:1 and 1:1 layer silicate structures
2:1 layer silicates
smectite, vermicuites, etc. Illite is the MOST common
crystal planes and faces
miller indices, hkl
nomenclature; different mineral crystal faces will have very different properties; 3 main faces/planes -100 (toward on X), 010 (away on Y), 001 (up on z - this area is huge)
Properties of soil solids: charge
isomorphous substitution and terminal broken bonds
isomorphous substitution
developer a charge within a mineral layer
isomorphous substitution: permanent or structural charge
is pH INdependent; replacement of one ion with another having a different charge but with no change in mineral structure