摘要
The X-rays diffraction analysis (XRD) is applied to measure the clay mineral compositions of the surface sediments in the Yangtze River drainage basin. The results show that the clay mineral compositions of the sediments display a similar pattern along the main stream, with highest content of illite and lowest content of smectite, but they are different from that in the tributary rivers, these can be responded to the heterogeneous source rocks and weathering intensity.