ABSTRACT

Translocation in suspension (clay) ƒ The particles of clay are naturally attracted to each other. In kaolinite, it is mostly hydrogen bonds because the clay mineral is asymmetric and presents O ions on one face and OH ions on the other. In the case of 2/1 clay minerals, mostly cation bridges and hydrogen bonds determined by water molecules are involved. Under these conditions, making a suspension of clay is not easy. This is noticed when we want to conduct particle-size analysis. All cations must be eliminated. But this is almost impossible in soils except in some very special cases. The transfer of clay in suspension is thus limited in the natural environment. We can use, for this translocation, the term ‘clay translocation’ or ‘argilluviation’. It must be noted that the term leaching corresponds exclusively to translocation of cations or/and salts in solution (lixiviation in French).