Speciation is important for describing chemical reactions in the environment and for estimating the environmental behavior of metal ions. For REE and actinides(III), particulate matter can be the main carrier governing their migration in a natural aquifer in addition to complexed species in an aqueous phase. [1][2][3] However, the chemical species of REE or actinides(III) at a solid-water interface is still not clearly understood on a molecular scale. Although the complexed species in an aqueous phase can be easily assessed by solution chemistry data, 3,4 the complex nature of particulate matter often prevents us from precisely describing the sorption reaction of REE, or actinides(III). Regarding this point, the REE distribution patterns plotting the distribution coefficients between the solid and aqueous phases in the order of atomic number could be a clue to clarify the REE species at the solid-water interface, since the REE distribution patterns reflect the chemical species of REE at the solid-water interface due to a systematic variation of the chemical character across the REE series. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using the REE distribution patterns to estimate the species of REE, or actinides(III), at a montmorillonite-water interface as an example of a solid-water system in a natural aquifer.It is considered that three features in the REE (including Y) patterns can be useful to estimate the REE species at the solidwater interface: (1) the slope of the REE pattern, (2) the tetrad effect, and (3) the Y/Ho ratio, the details of which are described in the next section. Although the sorption of selected REE on montmorillonite has been studied, [5][6][7][8] there have been few studies on the sorption of a complete REE series where REE patterns are employed to estimate the sorbed species, despite that REE patterns are highly relevant to the REE species. A part of the results were presented in Takahashi et al., but Y data were not included. 9 A similar aspect was also presented by Coppin et al., suggesting a correlation between the slope of the REE pattern and the REE species sorbed on clay minerals. 10 However, Coppin et al. have not clearly referred to the effectiveness of using the tetrad effect or the Y/Ho ratio for REE speciation, which is discussed in the present study. 10 Here, it is reported that the variation of the REE patterns is closely correlated with structural information on REE at the montmorillonite-water interface. In addition, the variation of the REE distribution patterns in the presence of humic acid was also included in this paper. Humic acid is another important constituent in a natural aquifer that can influence the REE behavior in the hydrosphere. [11][12][13][14] The relation between the REE patterns and the REE species at the solid-water interface was consistent with spectroscopic data obtained by laser-induced fluorescence for Eu(III) and Cm(III) species at the solid-water interface. These REE (rare earth element) distribution coefficients (Kd) between the aqueous p...