Logging shales

Claim 1

A GEOPHYSICAL WELL LOGGING PROCESS FOR DETERMINING THE CHARACTERISTICS AND POSITION OF CLAYEY STRATA CONTAINING EXCHANGEABLE CATIONS IN THE CLAYEY CONSTITUENTS OF THE STRATA WHICH COMPRISES COLLECTING SAMPLES OF SAID CLAYEY STRATA AT SPACED INTERVALS ALONG A BORE HOLE, COMMINUTING EACH OF SAID SAMPLES TO PRODUCE A PLURALITY OF SAMPLES EACH HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME PARTICLE SIZE, LEACHING EACH OF SAID SAMPLES WITH AN AMMONIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTION OT PRODUCE AN EFFLUENT FROM EACH OF SAID SAMPLES WHEREBY ALL OF THE EXCHANGEABLE CATIONS IN EACH SAPLE ARE SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETELY REPLACED BY THE NH4+ CATION CONTAINED IN SAID SOLUTION AND ARE CONTAINED IN SAID EFFLUENT, DETERMINING THE AMOUNT OF NH4+ CATION ADSORBED BY EACH OF SAID SAMPLES, WHEREBY THE TOTAL CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY OF EACH SAMPLE IS ASCERTAINED, QUANTITATIVELY AND QUALITATIVELY ANALYZING THE EFFLUENT FROM EACH OF SAID SAMPLES TO DETERMINE THE EXCHANGEABLE CATIONS CONTAINED THEREIN AND PREPARING A WELL LOG BY CORRELATING THE TOTAL CATION EXCHANGE CAPACITY VALUE OF EACH SAMPLE, AND THE DETERMINATIONS OF THE AFORESAID QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EFFLUENT FROM EACH SAMPLE WITH THE POSITION IN THE WELL BORE FROM WHICH THE SAMPLE WAS OBTAINED.