Abstract: The effects of montmorillonite and its related clay minerals on shale gas development were assessed in this study.First, the differences in content of the montmorillonite and its related clay minerals in various areas were analyzed, and certain variation patterns in changeable distribution features were found.Next, the sedimentary environment and differences in occurrence characteristics for montmorillonite and its related clay minerals under different buried depth conditions were analyzed to reveal the spatio-temporal evolution of montmorillonite and its related clay minerals.Montmorillonite transforms into illite in an alkaline environment rich in K⁺, converts into chlorite under alkaline conditions rich in Fe²⁺ and Mg²⁺, and forms kaolinite in acidic environments.With changes in strata burial depth, montmorillonite can be divided into a mixed illite-montmorillonite zone, a zone with abnormally high values of kaolinite, and an illite-chlorite development zone.Finally, given that the characteristics of montmorillonite(i.e., easy hydration expansion) can result in difficult shale gas production, the evolution law of montmorillonite and its related clay minerals is useful to form a reference scheme for the formulation development of drilling and fracturing fluids in shale gas reservoir development, and for predicting the distribution of high quality shale gas reservoirs.