Clay mineral quaternary sediments mineralogy

The subsidence is one of the geotechnical problems more important associated with Cordoba loess soils. The change of the mineral internal structure in the loess soils cause volume modification, that generate the potential danger of subsidence. The mineralogical evolution and the geotechnical behaviour in these soils are governed by the prevalent environmental hand lings in the region. A sequence of quaternary loess soils associated to a landscape with high carcavamiento has been studied. In this paper are examined the clay minerals and the calcium carbonates associated with the loess soils located in the superior basin of the Arroyo Tegua, Dto. Rio Cuarto, Prov. de Cordoba. The two-micron fraction was concentrated without previous destruction of cements and the determination of the mineral species has been carried out by means of X-Ray Diffraction methods. The clay minerals more abundant are the 2:1 non-expanded and rather crystallized ones. The 1:1non expanded mineral have disorderly structure and the 2:1 expanded are concentrated in the calcic horizons. The presence of palygoskite clay group was possible also to determine. The clay mineral composition in the studied sedimentary sequence is not homogeneous and the physical behavior of the different silts depends on the abundance and distribution of the clay minerals that carry. We can indicate that the clay minerals most unstable under humidity desiccation conditions are fireclay one and those of the palygorskite group. Recapitulating we can express that: vaterite is associated to more young silts and to a low alkaline environmental paleosoils genesis, but with a local CaCO3 supersaturation and alkalinity increase, vaterite transforms to calcite and also aragonite. (author)