Shale

Shale typically exhibits varying degrees of fissility, breaking into thin layers, often splintery and usually parallel to the otherwise indistinguishable bedding plane because of the 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 claystones (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][2]

Sample of drill cuttings of shale while drilling an oil well in Louisiana, United States. Sand grain = 2 mm in diameter

Shales are typically composed of clay minerals and quartz grain, and are typically 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] Black shale can also be referred to as black metal.[3] 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]

Succession of shale overlying thick bed of fossiliferous chert, Pottsville Formation, Pennsylvanian, Ohio

The process in the rock cycle which forms shale is called compaction. The fine particles that compose shale can remain suspended in water long after the larger 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 in sedimentary basins and 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.[4][5][6] 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.[5][7][8]

Splitting shale (Messel oil shale) with a large knife to reveal fossils

Weathering shale at a road cut in southeastern Kentucky

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 gneiss.

Before the mid-19th century, the terms slate, shale and schist were not sharply distinguished.[9] In the context of underground coal mining, shale was frequently referred to as slate well into the 20th century.[10]

• Bakken Formation
• Barnett Shale – Geological formation in Texas, United States
• Bearpaw Formation
• Burgess Shale – Rock formation in the Canadian Rockies with exceptional preservation of fossils' soft parts
• Marcellus Formation
• Mazon Creek fossil beds – Conservation lagerstätte in Illinois on the National Register of Historic Places
• Oil Shale
• Shale gas
• Wheeler Shale
• Wianamatta Shale

Media related to Shale at Wikimedia Commons