Smectite-Zeolite Envelope Surrounding the Tsukiyoshi Uranium Deposit, Central Japan: A Natural Analogue Study

Abstract. The Tsukiyoshi uranium deposit in Gifu Prefecture is the largest one in Japan. It is embedded in lower part of the Mizunami Group of Miocene age. Relating to the existence of this uranium deposit, the constituent minerals in sediments were studied by XRD and SEM, using many drilling cores. The most abundant authigenic mineral is smectite. The amount of smectite increases generally from upper to lower horizons, and a highly smectitized zone is situated around the uranium deposit. Smectitization predominated in mafic glassy grains of sediments, which was probably formed in early burial diagenesis. Zeolites including clinoptilolite-heulandite, mordenite, analcime, chabazite and philipsite are secondly abundant authigenic minerals. They seem to have been formed at early to late diagenetic stages. Opaline silica is rather rare. Carbonate minerals, including cal-cite, dolomite, siderite and rhodochrosite are common. They may be formed by diagenesis as well. Gypsum and pyrite occur in upper horizons and lower horizons, respectively. In particular, a highly smectitized zone including pyrite probably played an important role for retarding the migration of uranium and as a result keeping the uranium deposit for past one million years. This smectite-zeolite envelope surrounding the Tsukiyoshi uranium deposit is regarded as a natural analogue of the buffer materials surrounding the high-level radioactive waste repository.