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Use of aluminum-amalgam in mineral synthesis at low temperatures and 1 atmosphere total pressure

SOLUTIONS to problems of mineral genesis have traditionally been approached from three general directions. Firstly field studies have revealed certain regularities in mineral parageneses, which in turn give some insight into pressuretemperature conditions within the earth. Eskola's mineral facies technique is the pre-eminent example of this approach. Secondly, experimental studies have in many cases been successful in determining the physiochemical conditions of crystallization of mineral phases. Bowen's work was most influential in this regard. Finally, theoretical (and particularly thermodynamic) methods have been used to delimit mineral stability fields. Garrels' contributions to this approach are well known. The most difficult of these methods to apply to the study of mineral formation at the earth's surface is undoubtedly the experimental one. Many of the reactions that proceed in surficial deposits are so slow as to render impractical their duplication in the laboratory. This is particularly true of reactions to form those aluminosilicates that are known to be authiegnie in the zone of weathering. Generally, in order to synthesise such phases in the laboratory, experimental conditions must be changed appreciably from those that exist at the earth's surface. The most common change is to increase temperature, though doing this makes any application of the results to an interpretation of the earth's surface questionable. The most common synthesis technique in low temperature, low pressure geochemistry is the aging of silicon and aluminum containing gels, that are often of too great a compositional complexity to permit the ready analysis of results in terms of Gibb's Phase Rule. Thus even for the chemically simple system A1203-HzO there is still no generally accepted phase diagram for earth-surface conditions. Consequently deposits containing gibbsite, boehmite and other phases in this system cannot yet be interpreted unambiguously in terms of conditions of formation. A similar statement could be made concerning virtually all mineral phases that form at the earth's surface and ultimately is the reason why the study of soil genesis is not yet on the same plane of physico-chemical rigor that, for example, igneous and metamorphic petrogenesis are. The situation would be more hopeful if more direct methods of mineral synthesis were available to the low temperature geochemist. In fact one method has been available at least since 1870 (Chesworth, 1971) though it has been ignored by workers in this field. This employs aluminum amalgam to give aluminum hydroxide by reaction with water. The well known passivity of aluminum is caused by a deposit of hydroxides on the outer surface of the metal and amalgamation with mercury serves to remove this impediment. As an amalgam the aluminum displays its true electropositive character and reacts immediately with cold water. Use of such amalgams is new to geochemistry and is potentially a powerful aid to solving problems of mineral genesis at low temperatures and pressures. Some illustrative results of the application of this technique are presented here.