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This paper revisits the clay mineralogy of the "smectite" alteration zone in the Krafla geo-thermal field via the study of an exploratory well in which temperatures range from 40 °C to 215 °C. The clay alteration consists of several mineral assemblages superimposed in time and space, resulting from different stages of water-rock interaction. Trioctahedral clay minerals (chlorite, corrensite and smectite) are observed throughout the studied section. These minerals can form in nearly closed systems as replacements of groundmass minerals/glass after interactions with resident and nearly stagnant fluids not far from chemical equilibrium (neutral to basic pH conditions) or from direct precipitation from geothermal fluids. They are locally superimposed by Al clay phases (smectite, illite/smectite and kaolinite), which result from intense leaching of the host rocks due to their interaction with low pH fluids under strong W/R ratios. The absence of mineralogical zoning is explained by the fact that hydrothermal alteration is strongly dependent on very recent hydrodynamics. The current fluid circulation generates trioctahedral clays at depth that cannot be distinguished from pervasive earlier alteration. The only easily detectable signature of current activity and the most relevant signature for geothermal exploration is the presence of Al dioctahedral phases since it indicates leaching and intense hydrothermal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium (K) is an essential plant nutrient mainly present in the crystal structure of K-bearing soil minerals (K-feldspars, micas). To assess the evolution of (clay) mineralogy due to K+ release from these minerals in continuously cultivated soils, s amples were collected from long-term (1904–2014) field experiments submitted to contrasting crop rotations and amendments, with and without fertilisation. Soil samples were size-fractionated and mineralogy of the silt fraction and of clay subfractions was determined quantitatively by modelling X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Clay subfractions were also analysed for their cation exchange capacity (CEC). Mineralogical data indicate the stability of clay mineralogy and the increased abundance of the finest clay subfraction at the expense of coarser ones, regardless of agronomic practices or amount of K removed by plants. This increase is accompanied by an increase in the bulk clay CEC owing to the major contribution of the finest clay subfraction to this parameter. Mineral dissolution, rather than alteration of mineral phases from coarse clay subfractions, most likely supplements K for plant nutrition in this soil. Dissolution is favoured over cation exchange owing to the dioctahedral character of micas and to their fine-grained granulometry. The observed long-term mineralogical resilience also indicates that part of plant nutrition is obtained from subsoil in a non K-limited context, whereas K supply through K-feldspar dissolution appears marginal. Unlabelled Image • Evolution of clay mineralogy was quantified in long-term experimental plots. • Different agronomical practices lead to contrasting K balances. • Clay mineralogy is stable over time in all subplots independent of K balance. • K is supplied by the dissolution of illite-rich coarse clay fractions and by subsoil. • Dioctahedral character of fined-grained micas favours dissolution over K-exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil mesofauna and bacteria recovered from a paleosol in a moraine situated adjacent to the inland ice, Antarctica, and dating to the earliest glacial event in the Antarctic Dry Valleys opens several questions. The most important relates to understanding of the mineralogy and chemistry of the weathered substrate habitat in which Coleoptera apparently thrived at some point in the Early/Middle Miocene and perhaps earlier. Here, Coleoptera remains are only located in one of six horizons in a paleosol formed in moraine deposited during the alpine glacial event (>15 Ma). A tendency for quartz to decrease upward in the section may be a detrital effect or a product of dissolution in the early stage of profile morphogenesis when climate was presumably milder and the depositing glacier of temperate type. Discontinuous distributions of smectite, laumontite, and hexahydrite may have provided nutrients and water to mesofauna and bacteria during the early stage of biotic colonization of the profile. Because the mesofauna were members of burrowing Coleoptera species, future work should assess the degree to which the organisms occupied other sites in the Dry Valleys in the past. Whereas there is no reasonable expectations of finding Coleoptera/insect remains on Mars, the chemistry and mineralogy of the paleosol is within a life expectancy window for the presence of microorganisms, principally bacteria and fungi. Thus, parameters discussed here within this Antarctic paleosol could provide an analogue to identifying similar fossil or life-bearing weathered regolith on Mars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]