Phillipsite in deep-sea sediments

A phillipsite as one of oceanic authigenic zeolites gradually forms from alteration of volcanic glass under low temperature and pressure. In this paper physical property and chemical and mineralogical compositions of some zeolite grains collected from the study area in the North Pacific Ocean are first comprehensively studied, and they are defined as phillipsite. Then, statistics of grain percentage of the phillipsite widely-distributed at 35 sites in the study area in the deep-sea sediments were made; it has been found that they mainly occur in the two sediments:red clay and calcareous ooze, and are rich in the former. Finally, the authors preliminarily discuss the formation process of the phillipsite on the basis of this study results, together with the view points of predecessors.