gorgeousgeology: Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary…
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.
Shale is characterised by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding less than one centimetre in thickness, called fissility. Mudstones, on the other hand, are similar in composition but do not show the fissility.
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