Clay Mlnorelr and Soll Structurc

In this chapter, we briefly describe the important clay minerals, how

they are identified, and how they interact with water and with each other.
we also- describe some of the latest thinking about soil fabric and structure, concepts which are fundamentally important for a good understanding of cohesive soil behavior. Finally, cohesionless soil structures and the
concept of relative density are discussed.
Only one new symbol is introduced in this chapter.
Symbol
Door

Dirnension

lo

Unit

Def

inition

(%)

Relative dcnsity or
density indcx

4.2 CLAY M]NERALS

clay minerals are very tiny crystalline substances evolved primarily
from chemical weathering of certain rock-forming minerals. Chemically,
they are hydrous aluminosilicales plus other metallic ions. AII clay minerals
are very small, colloidal-sized crystals (diameter less than I pm), and they
can only be seen with an electron microscope. The individual crystals look
like tiny plates or flakes, and from X-ray diffraction studies scientists have
determined that these flakes consist of many crystat sheets which have a
repeating atomic structure. In fact, there are only two fundamental crystal
sheets, the tetrqhedral or silica, and the octahedral or alumina. sheets. The
particular way in which these sheets are stacked, together with different
bonding and different metallic ions in the crystal latrice, constitute the
different clav rnis3*.
The tetrahedral sheet is basically a combination of silica tetrahedral
units which consist of four oxygen atoms at the corners, surrounding a
single silicon atom. Figure 4.la shows a single silica tetrahedron; Fig.4.rb
shows how the oxygen atoms at the base of each tetrahedron are combined
to form a sheet structure. The oxygens at the bases of each tetrahedron ae
in one plane, and the unjoined oxygen corners all point in the same
direction. A common schematic representation of the tetrahedral sheet
which is used later is shown in Fig. 4.1c. A top view of the silica sheet
showing how the oxygen atoms at the base of each tetrahedron belong to
two tetrahedrons and how adjacent silicon atoms are bonded is shown in
Fig. 4.1d. Note the hexagonal "holes" in the sheet.
The octahedral sheet is basically a combination of octahedral units
consisting of six oxygen or hydroxyls enclosing an aluminum, magnesium,
iron, or other atom. A single octahedron is shown in Fig. 4.2a, while Fig.
4.2b shows how the octahedrons combine to form a sheet structure. The
rows of oxygens or hydroxyls in the sheet are in two planes. Figure 4.2c is

rrn