Layer silicates from Szklary (Lower Silesia): from ocean floor metamorhism to continental chemical weathering
Authors
Elżbieta Dubińska
Warsaw University, Faculty of Geology, Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology, al. Żwirki i Wigury 93, 02–089 Warsaw, Poland
Boris A. Sakharov
Institute of Geology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky per. D7, 107017 Moscow, Russia
Grzegorz Kaproń
Warsaw University, Faculty of Geology, Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology, al. Żwirki i Wigury 93, 02–089 Warsaw, Poland
Paweł Bylina
Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland;
Jan A. Kozubowski
Warsaw Technical University, Department of Material Engineering, Narbutta 85, 02-524 Warsaw, Poland;
The weathering crust at Szklary is known as a classical location of a nickeliferous laterite deposit derived from the chemical weathering of ultrabasic rocks. The layer silicates from the Szklary massif have been studied since the eighteenth century; moreover, this locality is considered to be an exceptional location of different minerals including nickel containing corrensite, interstratified kerolite-stevensite, interstratified serpentine-smectite, kerolite-pimelite, and clintonite. Ni-corrensite and irregularly mixed-layer serpentine-smectites with a variable layer ratio were found in Szklary for the first time. The origin of the layer silicates from Szklary is complex: (1) serpentine, chlorite, and clintonite are products of hydrothermal metamorphism related to the serpentinization of ultramafic rocks and posterior metamorphism and (2) the mixed-layer minerals, sepiolite, and kerolite-pimelite formed due to the hydrothermal and supergeneous alteration of ultrabasic rocks and various metamorphic schists.
