Q-Factors

Author: Dr. Stefan Krumm

Institut fuer Geologie, Schlossgarten 5, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany

Fax: ++49 9131 9295

e-mail:   krumm@geol.uni-erlangen.de

This program is public domain and may be copied for noncommercial use! Make sure to copy also the file named bwcc.dll.

Any comment is welcome!

We take no responsability for possible program errors!

Description

The Q-factors, described by Reynolds (1989) and Moore and Reynolds (1992) are a qualitative measure of the 00l-reflection broadening due to mixed-layering of clayminerals. This broadening is more pronounced the more a given order deviates from a integral value of the ratio of the the two basal spacings involved.

The Q-values vary between 0.5 (maximum broadened reflections) and 0 (no mixed-layer broadening).

A very sensitive test is to plot q-values against peakbreadths times cos(theta), what removes the broadening component due tu particle size effects. If the correct phases are identified, a good correlation should be observed. Otherwise, the spacings should be slightly modified in order to obtain a reasonable correlation (see the references above for a more detailed description).