This monograph discusses the major problems relating to the surface
environment by using clay mineralogy as a unifying theme. Since the
stability and development of illite, the most abundant and most common
clay mineral, is the key to surface mineral dynamics, understanding its
structure and transformation is an absolute prerequisite to
understanding the problems of environmental change. Using illite as the
frame, the authors describe problems in soil chemistry, clay stability
and clay kinetics in sedimentary rocks. This book is valuable for
graduate students, scientists and researchers in the fields of
sedimentology, sediment petrography and soil sciences.