Three sericite minerals collected from the alteration zones of the Matsumine deposit of the Hanaoka mine, Akita Prefecture, are described using x-ray, chemical analysis, infrared absorption, DTA and TG data, and their properties are discussed in comparison with those of sericite minerals associated with other Kuroko deposits.
DTA curves of a regularly interstratified mineral of sericite and montmorillonite and a 1 M sericite, both having a phengitic octahedral composition, show two endothermic peaks of dehydroxylation, but another regularly interstratified sericite/montmorillonite of which the octahedral composition being close to that of muscovite gives only one peak. The difference in octahedral composition of sericite minerals as well as of the present samples is indicated by the vibration frequencies of infrared bands at about 3620 cm
-1 and 530 cm
-1. The numbers of absorption bands (one or two) in the 800-830 cm
-1 range seem to be related to the octahedral composition rather than to polytype. The
d (060) values also vary with octahedral composition, but slight difference of the relations of
d (060) versus octahedral composition between the regularly and the randomly interstratified minerals suggests that there may be a compositional gap between these two minerals.
Close relationships between the mineralogical properties of sericite minerals and their modes of occurrence are recognized.
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