Location

Abstract--A kaolin bed in which many of the individual kaolinite platelets exceed 0-2 mm in size occurs in the immediate vicinity of the base of the middle-Miocene Kirkwood Formation, ear Woods-town, New Jersey. These platelets appear to have resulted fiom breakdown of pre-existing illite and montmorillonite coupled with concurrent epitaxial growth and diagenetic growth of primary kaolinite. The alteration of the clay minerals is thought to be a product of upward leaching (dialysis) by ground-waters in the underlying Vincentown Sand. This is further evidenced by abnormally high percentages of clay-size kaolinite in the clays that lie above the Vincentown Sand but beneath the macro-kaolinite horizon. Growth of the macro-kaolinite was facilitated by face-to-edge s dimentation a d the resul-tant high permeability ofthe stratum