Railsback's Some Fundamentals of Mineralogy and Geochemistry

The complementary nature of near-surface waters and minerals

This page attempts to summarize trends in the chemistry of near- The column at right is meant to suggest the progression
Earth-surface waters and the regolithic materials (soils to bedrock) of materials from Earth-surface to depth. Its inadvertent
in which they are found. This is a very schematic diagram that tries similarity to the Surrealist art of Joan Miró may be appropriate
to summarize all possible variability, and no one Earth-surface to the document's attempt to summarize so many disparate
example will be characterized by all of these trends. phenomena.

Waters tend to be Water Solids

at this end with . . .
Mineral systems tend to
Low-reactivity substrate
Much rainfall
Low TDS (<20 ppm) Less soluble minerals be at this end with . . .
Low pH Low Ωs Bulk chemistry highly enriched
Low-reactivity substrate
Low-Temperature / Much rainfall
Oxidizing in Ti4+, Al3+, Fe3+,Zr4+, etc. pedogenic minerals
HCO3 and considerably depleted of
Low Total Anions ratio No
Increasing depth or increasing age of groundwater

cations of low ionic potential

+
(e.g., K , Ca2+) carbonate
Groundwater -------- Soilwater ---------- Rainwater

Increasing time of exposure to weathering

Gibbsite minerals
Coarser Hematite
crystallites

Increasing depth in regolith

Kaolinite
Goethite Residual
(of any one high-T
pedogenic minerals from
mineral) igneous &
Halloysite metamorphic
parent
materials
(Shallow)

Calcite
Smectites (and/or
Dolomite)
Finer Amorphous
crystallites Fe(OH)3
Higher TDS Amorphous
Less change Mineral systems tend to
Higher (≥7?) pH alumino- Essentially be at this end with . . .
HCO in bulk chemistry silicates High-reactivity substrate
Waters tend to be 3
Higher Total Anions ratio from that of unaltered parent Little rainfall
at this end with . . .
Highly-reactive substrate parent material More Soluble or bedrock or till
Little rainfall Reducing(?) High Ωs Less Stable Minerals
In comparing between columns above, relative positions of words (e.g., gibbsite and
hematite) is dictated as much or more by graphic convenience as by natural occurrence.
LBR Water-Mineral-Soil Sum 06 5/1998; rev. 4/1999; 12/2000; 1/2003, 11/2009; 10/2012