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Transmission electron microscopy study of smectite illitization during hydrothermal alteration of a rhyolitic hyaloclastite from Ponza, Italy

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Clays and Clay Minerals

Abstract

Dioctahedral phyllosilicates from an altered rhyolitic hyaloclastite located at Ponza Island, Italy, were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The samples are from a sequence previously characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods, indicating that a complete range of illitization accompanies alteration. Backscattered electron (BSE) images, obtained from ion-milled samples, show that samples partly retain the original textures since clay minerals pseudomorph lapilli fragments and preserve vesicular texture. The lowest-grade sample studied contains obsidian clasts partially replaced by smectite. As the alteration grade increases, illitization proceeds with formation of interstratified illite-smectite (I-S), zeolites, illitic phases, feldspars and quartz. The most altered sample contains illite, mica and quartz. Lattice-fringe images show that following the formation of smectite, illitization takes place through the formation of (R=1) I-S, highly illitic I-S and illite with mica; (R=1) I-S is the only ordered interstratified I-S. The BSE and TEM images of Ponza samples show irregular cavities filled with euhedral dioctahedral clay minerals and the zeolite mordenite, providing direct evidence for neocrystallization from a fluid. Chemical compositions by analytical electron microscopy (AEM) support the sequence described. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns indicate the predominance of 1 Md polytypism both in I-S and illitic phases, and the coexistence in the more altered samples of 1Md illite and a 2-layer mica polytype (probably 2M1), without the intermediate 1M polytype generally assumed to exist in prograde sequences. Previous XRD studies indicated progressive change from cis-vacant, turbostratically stacked smectite, to interstratified cis- and trans-vacant, 1Md I-S, to trans-vacant, 1M illite, and then to 2M1 illite in Ponza Island samples. We observed a clear correlation between the chemical compositions as determined by AEM and the proportion of cis-vacant determined by XRD, suggesting that the octahedral cation distributions change in the studied samples with increasing degree of illitization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Cristalografía y Mineralogía, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50.009, Zaragoza, Spain

    Blanca Bauluz

  2. Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1063, USA

    Donald R. Peacor

  3. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, P.O. Box 2189, Houston, Texas, 77252-2189, USA

    Robert F. Ylagan

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  1. Blanca Bauluz
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  2. Donald R. Peacor
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  3. Robert F. Ylagan
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Correspondence to Blanca Bauluz.

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Bauluz, B., Peacor, D.R. & Ylagan, R.F. Transmission electron microscopy study of smectite illitization during hydrothermal alteration of a rhyolitic hyaloclastite from Ponza, Italy. Clays Clay Miner. 50, 157–173 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1346/000986002760832766

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