shale
Shale (also called mudstone) is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae
Formation
The process in the rock cycle which forms shale is compaction. The fine particles that compose shale can remain in water long after the larger and denser particles of sand have deposited. Shales are typically deposited in very slow moving water and are often found in lake and lagoonal deposits, in river deltas, on floodplains and offshore of beach sands. They can also be deposited on the continental shelf, in relatively deep, quiet water.
'Black shales' are dark, as a result of being especially rich in unoxidized carbon. Common in some Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata, black shales were deposited in anoxic, reducing environments, such as in stagnant water columns.
Fossils, animal tracks/burrows and even raindrop impact craters are sometimes preserved on shale bedding surfaces. Shales may also contain concretions.
Shales that are subject to heat and pressure alter into a hard, fissile, metamorphic rock known as slate, which is often used in building construction.
See also
 Bituminous shale
Oil shale
Burgess shale
Barnett Shale
Bearpaw Shale
Wianamatta shale
References
Blatt, Harvey and Robert J. Tracy, 1996, Petrology: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic, 2nd ed., Freeman, ISBN 0-7167-2438-3
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