Layer silicates from Szklary (Lower Silesia): from ocean floor metamorhism to continental chemical weathering

Abstract

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.