Application of the solid solution model for the description of the mineral composition of lake Baikal bottom settings

Abstract

The study of clay minerals, accumulated in the Baikal bottom settings, provides valuable information about climate changes in Asia during the Cenozoic Era. However, the depth of a sedimentary section does not allow conducting mineralogical studies at a pitch providing a reconstruction of the paleoclimate record with high resolution. Earlier, the mineral composition of the Baikal sediments has been calculated on the basis of the results of a chemical analysis [1]. At a preliminary stage the simplex-method, used in this approach, requires the determination of a chemical composition of the clay sedimentary components and the calculation of conditional stoichiometric formulas of mixed-layer aluminosilicates, being the markers of the most important paleoclimate episodes. In this article the improved method for calculating the mineral composition of sediments is used to determine the mixed-layer minerals of a solid solution model, is represented. It allowed eliminating the preliminary stage of clay matter chemical composition calculation and computerizing the determination of minerals stoichiometric formulas, corresponding to warm and cold climate episodes in the reconstruction of paleoclimate changes.