Two major processes controlling clay composition in recent marine sediments are (1) inheritance of terrigenous clays via deposition of rivers loads and (2) early diagenetic formation of clay minerals, also known as reverse weathering. Chamley (1989) and Weaver (1989), each summarizing almost four decades of research into the clay mineralogy of sediments in deltas and estuaries, came to the general conclusion that land-derived aluminous swelling clays do not undergo any significant transformations during early diagenesis in marine environments and therefore the clay mineralogy of young marine sediments is controlled exclusively by detrital input. Although the distribution of phyllosilicates on
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