Pelagic red clay

Pelagic red clay, also known as simply red clay, brown clay or pelagic clay, is a type of pelagic sediment.

Pelagic clay accumulates in the deepest and most remote areas of the ocean. It covers 38% of the ocean floor and accumulates more slowly than any other sediment type, at only 0.1–0.5 cm/1000 yr. Containing less than 30% biogenic material, it consists of sediment that remains after the dissolution of both calcareous and siliceous biogenic particles while they settled through the water column. These sediments consist of eolian quartz, clay minerals, volcanic ash, subordinate residue of siliceous microfossils, and authigenic minerals such as zeolites, limonite and manganese oxides. The bulk of red clay consists of eolian dust. Accessory constituents found in red clay include meteorite dust, fish bones and teeth, whale ear bones, and manganese micro-nodules.

These pelagic sediments are typically bright red to chocolate brown in color. The color results from coatings of iron oxide and manganese oxide on the sediment particles. In the absence of organic carbon, iron and manganese remain in their oxidized states and these clays remain brown after burial. When more deeply buried, brown clay may change into red clay due to the conversion of iron hydroxides to hematite.

Brown clay (disambiguation)

Brown clay or Brown Clay may refer to:

James Brown Clay

James Brown Clay (November 9, 1817 – January 26, 1864) was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky.

Born in Washington, D.C., while his father, Henry Clay, was serving in the United States Congress, James Brown Clay was named for the husband of his maternal aunt, James Brown. His brothers were Henry Clay, Jr. and John Morrison Clay. Clay attended a boys' school associated with Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio (founded by family friend Bishop Philander Chase). Later, Clay attended Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He worked at a countinghouse in Boston from 1832 to 1834 before studying law and being admitted to the bar. He practiced law with his father in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1843, Clay married Susan Maria Jacob, the daughter of Louisville's first millionaire and sister of its later mayor, Charles Donald Jacob. The couple eventually had ten children.

Clay served as Chargé d'Affaires to Portugal from August 1, 1849, to July 19, 1850. He farmed in Missouri in 1851 and 1852 before returning to Lexington. Clay had been a lifelong member of the Whig Party — the party of his father. But when the Whig Party disintegrated following Henry Clay's death, James B. Clay joined the Democratic Party. In fact, he was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1859). Clay did not run for renomination in 1858 and declined an appointment by President James Buchanan to a mission to Germany. Clay served as a member of the Peace conference of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., an attempt to prevent the impending American Civil War. During the Civil War Clay supported the Confederacy and was commissioned to raise a regiment. His ill-health from tuberculosis prevented him from doing so. Clay died in Montreal, Canada, where he had gone for his health. He is interred at his family plot in Lexington Cemetery.