Geochemistry of Clay-Pore Fluid Interactions

Review papers covering subjects such as characterisation of mudrocs and clays, diagenesis and weathering, and applications in civil and petroleum engineering.

The geochemistry of clay-pore fluid interactions. Part One: Experimental and theoretical characterization of mudrocks and clays. Characterization of porous solids and particle aggregates by small angle scattering techniques. Monte Carlo simulations of Mg- and Na- smectites. Molecular dynamics simulation of water mobility in smectites. Part Two: Natural processes of diagenesis and weathering. The composition of authigenic clay minerals in recent sediment: links to the supply of unstable reactants. Diagenesis in Jurassic mudrocks of the North Sea. Diagenetic pore fluid evolution in the Kimmeridge Clay formation: from concretions to sandstone cements. Part Three: Experimental studies of diagenesis and weathering. The stability of experimentally grown clay minerals: implications for modelling the stability of neoformed diagenetic clay minerals. Laboratory reproduction of morphological variation in petroleum reservoir clays: monitoring of fluid composition during illite precipitation. Experimental diagenesis of mudrocks. Weathering kinetics of montmorillonite: investigations in batch and mixed flow reactors. Part Four: Applications in civil and petroleum engineering. Mechanisms of overpressuring: an overview. Clays as chemical and hydraulic barriers in waste disposal: evidence from porewaters. Mass transfer mechanisms in compacted clays. Monitoring the evolution of the clay environment beneath a concrete vault at the Drigg low level waste disposal site. New apparatus for pore fluid extraction from mudrocks for geochemical analysis. Chemical composition of pore waters in the Italian Plio-Pleistocene clay formations. Porewater-groundwater relationships in Jurassic shales and limestones of Northern Switzerland.