A mineralogical investigation of the Castell soil clay

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to acquire more information about the clay mineralogy of a soil (tentatively named Castell) developed in the Central Basin Land Resource Area of Texas on Valley Springs gneiss. Stahnke (5^) researched the genesis and did preliminary work on the clay mineralogy. He obtained poor X-ray diffraction patterns of the clay fractions studied; therefore, he was not able to draw direct conclusions as to the exact nature of the mineralogy and genesis of the soil. The first step in this study was to confirm the results obtained by Stahnke, proving that his poor results were not due to laboratory technique.