CLAY MINERALOGY OF INSOLUBLE RESIDUES IN MARINE EVAPORITES.
Insoluble residues from three sequences of Paleozoic marine evaporites (Retsof salt bed in western New York, Salado Formation in south-eastern New Mexico, and Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation in southeastern Utah) are rich in trioctahedral clays. Chlorite (clinochlore), corrensite (mixed-layer chlorite-trioctahedral smectite), talc, and illite (the only dioctahedral clay) are the dominant clay minerals; serpentine, discrete trioctahedral smectite (saponite), and interstratified talc-trioctahedral smectite are sporadically abundant. These clay-mineral assemblages differ chemically and mineralogically from those observed in most continental and normal marine rocks, which commonly contain kaolinite, dioctahedral smectite (beidellite-montmorillonite), illite, mixed-layer illite-dioctahedral smectite, and, in most cases, no more than minor quantities of trioctahedral clay minerals. The distinctive clay mineralogy in these evaporite sequences suggests a largely authigenic origin. These clay minerals are thought to have formed during deposition and early diagenesis through interaction between argillaceous detritus and Mg-rich marine evaporite brines.