Originally published in French, this updated and expanded English translation offers a definitive treatment on clays and effects on human health including the long history of clays used as pharmaceutical and therapeutic agents, the origins of clays, their structural properties and modes of action.

This book is an attempt to provide a comprehensive and coherent description of three widely separated aspects of clays: the science of clays; the industrial uses of clays; and the role of clays in the environment. Most of the existing literature lacks such an integrated study and this work endeavours to fill that gap. An exhaustive account of the science of clays is presented in Part I of the book, which includes the classification, origin and evolution, composition and internal structure, chemical and physical properties of clays; soil mechanics; and analytical techniques for determining clay constituents. Part II provides a comprehensive description of the applications of clays and their derivatives in various industries, while Part III describes the role of clays in the environment; the pollution caused by clay minerals; and the application of clays in order to prevent environmental hazards. A principal feature of the book is its explanation of how the structure and composition of particular clay types facilitate their specific industrial or environmental applications, thus describing the interrelationship between three widely varying aspects of clay. A number of thought-provoking questions are raised at the end of the work in order to leave readers with a better insight in this regard.

Clays and Clay Minerals, Volume 8 contains the proceedings of the Eighth National Conference on Clays and Clay Minerals held in Norman, Oklahoma, on October 11-14, 1959 and sponsored by the Clay Minerals Committee of the National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council in cooperation with the University of Oklahoma. The papers explore research findings as well as problems related to clays and clay minerals in many diverse disciplines. This volume is comprised of 22 chapters and begins with a description of clays and clay minerals present in Wichita Mountain area, southwestern Oklahoma, followed by an analysis of the correlations of kaolinite crystallinity with chemical and physical properties. An evaluation of the amount and distribution of montmorillonite in some kaolins found in Georgia and South Carolina is then presented. Subsequent chapters focus on the geology, mineralogy, and genesis of selected fireclays from Latah County, Idaho; chemical weathering of layer silicate clays in loess-derived Tama silt loam of southwestern Wisconsin; possible uses of clay minerals in the search for oil; and a geochemical method for determining paleosalinity. The final chapter presents the results of a mineralogical analysis of soil clays involving vermiculite-chlorite-kaolinite differentiation. This book will appeal to geologists, geochemists, and mineralogists.

Clays and Clay Minerals documents the proceedings of the 14th National Conference in Berkeley, California. This book focuses on the structure and quantitative analysis, surface reactivity, genesis, and synthesis of clays and clay minerals. Topics discussed include status of clay mineral structures; layer charge relations in clay minerals of micaceous soils and sediments; mechanical force fields in a clay mineral particle system; and kinetics of decomposition of cobalt coordination complexes on montmorillonite surfaces. The factors affecting the frequency distribution of clay minerals in soils; stability of brucite in the weathering zone of the new Idria serpentinite; and interrelationships of physical and chemical properties of kaolinites are also elaborated in this publication. This compilation is beneficial to students and researchers conducting work on clay mineral studies.

Clay behaviour is affected by coupled mechanical and chemical processes occurring in them at various scales. The peculiar chemical and electro-chemical properties of clays are the source of many undesired effects. These papers provide insight into the variables controlling clay behaviour.

This Special Publication contains 43 scientific studies presented at the 5th conference on ‘Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement’ held in Montpellier, France in 2012. The conference and this resulting volume cover all the aspects of clay characterization and behaviour considered at various temporal and spatial scales relevant to the confinement of radionuclides in clay, from basic phenomenological process descriptions to the global understanding of performance and safety at repository and geological scales. Special emphasis has been given to the modelling of processes occurring at the mineralogical level within the clay barriers. The papers in this Special Publication consider research into argillaceous media under the following topic areas: large-scale geological characterization; clay-based concept/large-scale experiments; hydrodynamical modelling; geochemistry; geomechanics; mass transfer/gas transfer; mass transfer mechanisms. The collection of different topics presented in this Special Publication demonstrates the diversity of geological repository research.

Of unique interest to the student of nineteenth century America is this account of the Alabama Clays, who in their private life were typical of the slaveholding aristocracy of the old South, but as lawyer-politicians played significant roles in state and national politics, in the development of the Democratic party, and in the affairs of the Confederacy. In the period from 1811 to 1915, the Clays were involved in many of the great problems confronting the South. This study of the Clay family includes accounts of the wartime legislation of the Confederate Congress and the activities of the Confederate Commission in Canada. Equally interesting to many readers will be the intimate view of social life in ante-bellum Washington and the story of the domestic struggles of a plantation family during and after the war, as revealed through the letters of Clement Claiborne Clay and his wife Virginia.