The Microscopic Determination Of Soil Forming Minerals

Excerpt from The Microscopic Determination of Soil-Forming Minerals Soils are largely the result of certain natural processes, physical, chemical, and biological, upon rock and rock materials. Consa quently the greater part of the soil is made up of mineral fragments coming from the original rock components and to some extent of decomposition and alteration products derived from the degradation products.-1 It is obvious that to understand the properties of a soil, and especially those properties which are dependent upon origin, mode of formation, and composition, the minerals of the soil must be known. Much attention has been given the mechanical composition of the Soil and its consequent physical properties; the chemical com position, organic as well as inorganic; and the biological composition, especially in recent years. But little attention has been given the mineralogical composition, and that in spite of the great advances in mineralogical technique, especially along optical lines incident to rapid development of petrographical and geological investigations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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One of the major developments in Earth Sciences in general, and mineralogy in particular, has been the growth of our understanding of the microscopic behaviour of the complex materials that make up the Earth. This has been made possible by advances in our ability to probe minerals at the atomic level, over a large range of pressure and temperature conditions. New experimental techniques include the use of scanning probe microscopies to investigate mineral surfaces, as well as the use of neutron scattering, nuclear spectroscopies and synchrotron radiation to investigate the bonding and structure of minerals. In addition, there have been major developments in computational methods so that it is now possible to calculate the electronic structure of many rock forming materials. The aim of this volume is to give a coherent survey of the latest developments in experimental and theoretical approaches to the study of microscopic propertie~ and processes in minerals. Chapters in the book cover a number of key themes in the mineral sciences such as the behaviour of minerals at extremes of pressure and temperature, ordering in complex silicates, mechanisms of water incorporation in mantle phases, the importance of reactions occurring at the mineral surface, and the ability of computational methods to provide useful, qualitative information on the bulk and surface properties of minerals. The background to several experimental techniques is covered in some detail with examples of relevance to the issues cited above.