QUANTITATIVE-DETERMINATION OF MINERALS IN ACID FOREST SOILS OF GRANITE

A procedure for quantifying minerals in particle size fractions of fin e earth (<2 mm) is presented. Mineral fractions of the acid forest soi ls are characterised by various transition products. Transitional mine rals between illite and vermiculite or smectite, polyhydroxy-Al polyme rs interlayered in smectite and vermiculite, as well as poorly crystal line compounds are present. Normative calculations with standard miner als, generally applied to rocks, cannot be used to quantify precisely minerals of these soil samples. Conventional qualitative and quantitat ive chemical analyses are therefore completed by microanalyses of well -identifiable minerals. The calculation procedure Is based mainly on a system of simultaneous linear equations. These are set up from the ch emical contents of a particle size fraction on the one hand and from t he corresponding clement contents of single minerals on the other hand . The contribution of single minerals to overall parameters can be cal culated by programmed algorithms. The methodology was adjusted to diff erent particle size fractions.