Shale

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/shale

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the geological classification?Fine-grained clastic sedimentary rock, predominantly composed of clay minerals and silt-sized particles
2. What is the global abundance?The most common sedimentary rock type on Earth's surface
3. How does shale form?Shale forms when mud settles in calm places like deep seas, lakes, or floodplains. Over time, pressure and heat push the mud together, and minerals help glue the particles into a solid rock.
4. Why can shale split into thin layers?Shale can split into thin layers because the flat clay minerals line up during pressing. This alignment creates many small, parallel planes that the rock can break along.

Clastic Sedimentary Rock: Rock formed from the accumulation and cementation of discrete fragments (clasts) derived from pre-existing rocks or minerals.
Fissility: The property of a rock, particularly shale, to cleave or split readily along closely spaced, parallel planes (laminae).
Lithification: The process by which unconsolidated sediments are transformed into solid rock through compaction and cementation.
Diagenesis: All physical, chemical, and biological changes that occur in sediment after deposition and during and after lithification.