—  Sedimentary Rock  —
Clay minerals and quartz

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable.[1] Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimeter in thickness, called fissility.[1] Mudstones, on the other hand, are similar in composition but do not show the fissility.

Historical mining terminologyEdit

Before the mid 19th century, the terms slate, shale and schist were not sharply distinguished.[2] In the context of underground coal mining, shale was frequently referred to as slate well into the 20th century.[3]


Shale typically exhibits varying degrees of fissility breaking into thin layers, often splintery and usually parallel to the otherwise indistinguishable bedding plane because of parallel orientation of clay mineral flakes.[1] Non-fissile rocks of similar composition but made of particles smaller than 0.06 mm are described as mudstones (1/3 to 2/3 silt particles) or claystone (less than 1/3 silt). Rocks with similar particle sizes but with less clay (greater than 2/3 silt) and therefore grittier are siltstones.[1] Shale is the most common sedimentary rock.[4]

Drill cuttings - Annotated - 2004

Sample of drill cuttings of shale while drilling an oil well in Louisiana. Sand grain = 2 mm. in dia.

Composition and colorEdit

Shales are typically composed of variable amounts of clay minerals and quartz grains and the typical color is gray. Addition of variable amounts of minor constituents alters the color of the rock. Black shale results from the presence of greater than one percent carbonaceous material and indicates a reducing environment.[1] Red, brown and green colors are indicative of ferric oxide (hematite - reds), iron hydroxide (goethite - browns and limonite - yellow), or micaceous minerals (chlorite, biotite and illite - greens).[1]

Clays are the major constituent of shales and other mudrocks. The clay minerals represented are largely kaolinite, montmorillonite and illite. Clay minerals of Late Tertiary mudstones are expandable smectites whereas in older rocks especially in mid to early Paleozoic shales illites predominate. The transformation of smectite to illite produces silica, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron and water. These released elements form authigenic quartz, chert, calcite, dolomite, ankerite, hematite and albite, all trace to minor (except quartz) minerals found in shales and other mudrocks.[1]

Shales and mudrocks contain roughly 95 percent of the organic matter in all sedimentary rocks. However, this amounts to less than one percent by mass in an average shale. Black shales which form in anoxic conditions contain reduced free carbon along with ferrous iron (Fe2+) and sulfur (S2-). Pyrite and amorphous iron sulfide along with carbon produce the black coloration.[1]

Formation Edit


Limey shale overlaid by limestone, Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee

The process in the rock cycle which forms shale is compaction. The fine particles that compose shale can remain suspended 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 lakes and lagoonal deposits, in river deltas, on floodplains and offshore from 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. Some black shales contain abundant heavy metals such as molybdenum, uranium, vanadium, and zinc [5][6][7]. The enriched values are of controversial origin, having been alternatively attributed to input from hydrothermal fluids during or after sedimentation or to slow accumulation from sea water over long periods of sedimentation.[6][8][9]

Fossils, animal tracks/burrows and even raindrop impact craters are sometimes preserved on shale bedding surfaces. Shales may also contain concretions consisting of pyrite, apatite, or various carbonate minerals.

Shales that are subject to heat and pressure of metamorphism alter into a hard, fissile, metamorphic rock known as slate. With continued increase in metamorphic grade the sequence is phyllite, then schist and finally to gneiss.

Shale 8040

Weathering shale at a road cut in southeastern Kentucky

When shale is hit against other rock it can emit sparks of various colors like blue, green, purple,yellow, and white. dependent on the type of rock it is hit against.

See alsoEdit


  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Blatt, Harvey and Robert J. Tracy, 1996, Petrology: Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic, 2nd ed., Freeman, pp. 281 - 292 ISBN 0-7167-2438-3
  2. R. W. Raymond, Slate, A Glossary of Mining and Metallurigical Terms, American Institute of Mining Engineers, 1881; page 78.
  4. "Rocks: Materials of the Lithosphere - Summary".,6540,354318-,00.html. Retrieved 2007-07-31. 
  5. R. Zangerl and E.S. Richardson,1963, The paleoecologic history of two Pennsylvanian shales, Fieldiana Memoirs v 4, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 352 p.
  6. 6.0 6.1 J.D. Vine and E.B. Tourtelot, 1970, Geochemistry of black shale deposits - A summary report: Economic Geology 65 pp. 253-273
  7. R.M. Coveney, 1979, Zinc concentrations in mid-continent Pennsylvanian black shales of Missouri and Kansas, Economic Geology 74 pp. 131-140.
  8. R.M. Coveney, 2003, Metalliferous Paleozoic black shales and associated strata: in D.R. Lenz ed., Geochemistry of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks, Geotext 4, Geological Association of Canada pp. 135-144
  9. H.D. Holland, 1979, Metals in black shales - A reassessment, Economic Geology 70 pp. 1676-1680
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The original article was at Shale. The list of authors can be seen in the history for that page. The text of Wikipedia is available under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.