INTERLAYERED CHLORITE-VERMICUL ITE IN SOILS DEVELOPED ON A SMALL SERPENTIN ITE BODY

ABSTRACT: Three soil profiles developed on a serpentinite body (La Roche-l'Abeille, near Limoges) show three stages of weathering. All soils contain iron-rich smectites and secondary chlorites. The latter are very silica-rich, more so than 14 A chlorites from crystalline rocks. In the (B)lg horizon of the hydromorphic profile, these minerals eem to give a reaction of the type: soil interstratified chlorite + smectitel> mineral + smectite2 This reaction, typical of a closed system, appears to be operative in a soil profile which is certainly, in part, open to chemical migration. The chemistry of the weathered serpentinite and the chemical composition of newly formed minerals as well as those of the serpentinite are used to indicate the chemiographic relations of clay minerals formed in the weathering profiles