Maturation stages of glauconites: A combined electron microprobe, Raman, and thermogravimetric study

Glauconite mineral is one of the most sensitive indicators of low sedimentation rate in the marine environment. The time of residence of glauconites at the sea bottom before burial is reflected by their so-called maturity that is differentiated based on their K2O content. The present work aims to investigate the evolution of glauconites during the transition toward the highly evolved level. Complementary electron microprobe, Raman, and Thermogravimetric analysis were performed on glauconitic grains from the Belluno basin (N Italy) with different K2O content in order to verify whether the level of glauconites evolution affects the results of these surveys. The obtained results show that Raman spectra are sensitive to the grade of glauconite maturations. First, spectra of mature glauconites are more structured, due to the lower degree of Al substitution in the octahedral sites. Moreover, the position of the strongest Raman peak (Si–Ob–Si mode) at ~700 cm-1 shows two contrasting behaviors in the early (K2O <8%) and late (K2O> 8%) stages of glauconites maturation, respectively. TGA measurements reveals that the presence of interlayer water is also related to the state of glauconites maturations. The obtained results were explained in the light of different isomorphic substitutions occurring at octahedral level in the mature and non-mature glauconites, thus allowing to obtain a deeper insight onto the mechanism of glauconites evolution.