Clays in Sedimentary Environments

Abstract

Geologists are always faced with many questions when studying natural sys-tems. Among them, some can be answered using clay minerals if one considers a particular aspect of their chemical composition: isotopes. The goal of this chapter is to give the basics of the stable and radioactive isotope chemistry through the description of some geological examples. This is simply an intro-duction to a broad field of investigation. More detailed presentations may be found in the suggested reading listed at the end of the chapter.