A mathematical model to distinguish the members of the dioctahedral smectite series

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Statistical (Q-mode) analysis of the chemical compositions of 122 dioctahedral smectites obtained from the literature have enabled the main solid solution ranges (montmorillonite, beidellite and nontronite) to be distinguished on a triangular diagram. In the montmorillonite area, the Wyoming, Tatatilla, Otay, Chambers and Non-Ideal montmorillonite compositional ranges are identified. Certain crystallochemical features of the smectites may be correlated with different genetic environments.