Plan of evaluation This evaluation of clay microstructure is geared toward the varied team of execs who proportion an curiosity within the homes of fine-grained minerals in sediments. over the last a number of a long time, participants of this team have incorporated geologists, soil scientists, soil engineers, engineering geologists, and ceramics scientists. extra lately, it has integrated major numbers of marine geologists and different engineers. all the disciplines has built particular options for investigating houses of clay sediments that experience confirmed to be fruitful in answering questions of vital curiosity. wisdom of clay microstructure-the textile of a sediment and the physico­ chemical interactions among its components-is basic to some of these disciplines (Mitchell 1956; Lambe 1958a; Foster and De 1971). Clay cloth refers back to the spatial distribution, orientations, and particle-to-particle family members of the cast debris (generally these under three. nine /Lm in dimension) of sediment. Physico-chemical interac­ tions are expressions of the forces among the debris. during this evaluation, we hint the old improvement of below­ status clay microstructure by way of discussing key clinical papers released ahead of 1986 on physico-chemical interactions in superb­ grained sediments and on clay cloth. because the improvement follows an problematic course, the present view of clay microstructure is summarized. This precis incorporates a dialogue of the current country of data, the observations made to date, and the proof which are now established.