Continuing activity in the Upper Ordovician mudrocks of the Montreal area for manufacturing purposes and construction encouraged this study of their weathering behavior in relation to composition and microstructure. / The mudrocks are grouped into four primary lithological divisions based on clay contents. Illite, chlorite and small amounts of mixed-layer clay minerals are present in similar proportions throughout all microlithologies. The distribution of calcium and magnesium in X-ray scanning images indicates that carbonates are present as silt grains rather than as cement. The specific surface of the mudrocks ranges from 2 to 20 m('2)/g for nitrogen and from 15 to 40 m('2)/g for water vapor. / The higher degree of susceptibility to moisture of the more clay-rich facies is attributed to their greater parallelism of microstructure, the presence of mesopores (2-50 nm) and less compacted packing. Changes in apparent cohesion at the menisci of capillary held water in the irregular network of passages appear to occur as cycles of adsorption and desorption proceed, resulting in the opening and closing of cracks and intermittent crack development.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.76736 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | Kim, Chun-soo. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Geological Sciences.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000196427, proquestno: AAINK66591, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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