“…The association of barite with fibrous clays may be influenced by the ability of clay particles to preferentially adsorb Ba, which when combined with available sulfate, may form barite (Hanor, 2000). Palygorskite and sepiolite fibers have high surface areas (150-600 m 2 /g) (Cases et al, 1991;Galan, 1996;Güngör et al, 2006), low to moderate CEC values (5-45 meq/100 g) (Birkeland, 1999), and pore volumes ranging from 0.13 to 0.34 cm 3 /g (Güngör et al, 2006). Fiber arrangement and high surface area create a microporous environment within the soil matrix (Grillet et al, 1988;VarasMuriel and Molina-Ballesteros, 2004) and also make these clays highly desirable for sorption of organic and inorganic materials (Galan, 1996;Leguey et al, 2010).…”