MINERALOGY AND CHEMISTRY OF A TRANSVAAL BLACK CLAY TOPOSEQUENCE

Moralistic soils (vertic and non-vertic black clays) were sampled along a 200 m top sequence in the Transvaal Highveld, South Africa. The Milk wood soil on the upper part of the margalitic top sequence has an Al horizon which lacks both slickensides and self-mulching properties but has strong blocky structure, the others are all self-mulching (i.e. Vertisols). The Vertisols differ in some morphological properties such as the absence (Mngazi series) and presence (Arcadia series) of pedogenic calcite accumulation, both overlying decomposed dolerite, whereas the third member from a red-black centenary sequence is calcareous with a gleyed subsoil horizon. Chemical and XRD analysis suggest that the clays of the Vertisols comprise mainly a partly chloritized iron-rich smectite with Ie > Mg + Al in the octahedral layer (and interlayer positions), while in the upland Milkwood soil intergradient halloysitic clay occurs in addition to a more‘open’structured chloritized iron smectite. The mineralo-chemical results and the geomorphic data suggest that the genesis of these soils is controlled primarily by the internal soil water regime.