Regional Clay-Mineral Facies—Products of Weathering Intensity and Current Distribution in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico

Research Article| June 01, 1962 Regional Clay-Mineral Facies—Products of Weathering Intensity and Current Distribution in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico GEORGE M GRIFFIN GEORGE M GRIFFIN Shell Development Company, Exploration and Production Research Division, Box 481, Houston 1, Texas Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information GEORGE M GRIFFIN Shell Development Company, Exploration and Production Research Division, Box 481, Houston 1, Texas Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 07 Jul 1960 First Online: 02 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2674 Print ISSN: 0016-7606 Copyright © 1962, The Geological Society of America, Inc. Copyright is not claimed on any material prepared by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment. GSA Bulletin (1962) 73 (6): 737–767. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1962)73[737:RCFOWI]2.0.CO;2 Article history Received: 07 Jul 1960 First Online: 02 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation GEORGE M GRIFFIN; Regional Clay-Mineral Facies—Products of Weathering Intensity and Current Distribution in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico. GSA Bulletin 1962;; 73 (6): 737–767. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1962)73[737:RCFOWI]2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Three major rivers supply most of the clay-mineral detritus that the northeastern Gulf of Mexico receives. The mineralogy of the clay supplied by each river is a product of the weathering versus parent-rock interplay in the drainage basins. In the western drainage basins, erosion and transportation of essentially unaltered montmorillonitic sediments prevails. Eastward, weathering becomes more effective, and kaolinite gradually becomes more abundant in the soils and river clays. Consequently, the Mississippi River is contributing a montmorillonitic clay-mineral suite, and the Apalachicola River is contributing a kaolinitic suite. The Mobile River, between these two rivers, is contributing an intermediate clay-mineral suite. The river sediments pass through the various bays and estuaries with only minor alterations in their clay-mineral suite which are of too small a magnitude to affect significantly the gross regional distribution pattern.Within the Gulf of Mexico, that portion of the clay not flocculated by saline water at the river mouths is distributed first by the wind-driven shallow water currents and then by the semi-permanent oceanic currents. A gradational facies pattern is developed in which the sources of supply, their magnitudes, and the distributional directions are clearly evident.Clay-mineral distributional patterns in the modern Apalachicola River area are similar to those in the Texas lower Eocene (Wilcox) sediments. Similar weathering and current factors may have produced the analogous clay-mineral facies patterns. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.