COMMENTS ON DISCUSSION OF CHARACTERIZAT ION OF MAF IC PHYLLOSIL ICATES IN LOW-GRADE METABASITES US ING DECONVOLUTION ANALYSIS

phyllosilicates in low-grade metabasites i a useful and valuable addition to the controversy regarding the characterization f these minerals. Hillier has shown with greater emphasis than in the past that NEWMOD-calculated X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of a chlorite-smectite mixed-layer model cannot be satisfactorily distinguished from those involving mixed-layering between corrensite and either smectite or chlorite; there is no disagreement on this point. As highlighted in the Introduction of Robinson & Bevins (1994), the main theme of the paper was that more rigorous and objective analysis, than in the past, of high-intensity/ resolution XRD patterns of mafic phyllosilicate