Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
Clay and claystone
Clay is a textural term to define the finest grade of clastic sedimentary particles, those less than 4
microns in diameter. Clay minerals are a group of phyllosilicate minerals that are the main
constituents of clay-sized particles.
Clay and claystone generally contain one of the following three groups of minerals: illite,
smectite (montmorillonite) and kaolinite group and a smaller or larger proportion of chlorite.
• Chlorites in clay stones occur during diagenetic processes.
• Illite mineral group is typical of the marine clay deposits. Illite, in the clay stones, is
mainly derived from the diagenesis of kaolinite by chemical weathering of feldspar.
• Smectite (montmorillonite) group of clay minerals contain up to 20% water and absorb
Ca and Mg. Clay and claystone mainly composed of this group of clay minerals and are
called bentonites, and form as a result of alteration of acidic tuffs and volcanic glass.
• Kaolinite group of clays is typical for kaolinite rich or pure kaolinite clay known as
kaolin. Clays containing kaolinite group of clay minerals are characterized by a light or
milky white color and in contact with water become remarkably plastic.
Silt and siltstone
o Silt is defined as the grain size of material between 4 and 62 microns in diameter. This
size range is subdivided into coarse, medium, fine and very fine.
o Siltstones are rocks, according to granulometric measurements, chemical composition
and textural structural features, that make the transition from fine-grained sandstone in
the mud and clay rocks.
The dominant component of siltstone is angular grains of quartz, significantly associated with the
tiny grains of feldspar and mica flakes, and up to 33% clay. Some types of siltstone containing a
substantial amount of carbonate, mainly calcite cement or fine-grained carbonate detritus
(carbonate mud deposited along with grains of silt size), and such a rock is called calcareous
siltstone.
The calcite cement can be paved with authigenic quartz, opal or chalcedony, or sometimes
mineral binder which originated from the diagenetic processes of clay minerals, i.e. sericite,
chlorite and illite. Siltstones are generally massive, thickly layered, strongly lithified,
homogeneous, sometimes horizontally or obliquely laminated rocks.
• Siltstones are often represented and deposited mainly in lacustrine and marine basins.
Mudstone and Shale
Mudstones and shales are made of silt and clay sized particles that are too small to see.
• Mudstones are very fine grained clastic sedimentary rock with particle sizes dominantly
silt and clay.
• Shale is very fine grained clastic sedimentary rock with particle sizes dominantly silt and
clay.
Characteristic properties of shale are breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering or bedding
called fissility. The composition (silt and clay) of shale in a category of sedimentary rocks
1
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
known as mudstone. Difference between shale to mudstone, it is fissile and laminated. Shale
rock split into thin pieces along the laminations.
Physical characteristics of mudstones and shales
1. Texture of mudstones and shales
• Grain size: Texturally, clay is defined as all material finer than 4 microns; silt ranges in
size from 4 to 63 microns.
• Particle shape: The shapes of fine silt and clay size particles in mudstones reflect mainly
the original shapes of the detrital particles, largely unmodified by transport abrasion, or
they reflect the shapes of minerals generated during diagenesis.
o Most particles in mudstones are very angular.
o Many particles, especially clay minerals have platy, flaky, or acicular shapes.
2- Microfabric
Because shales contain high concentrations of clay minerals that have platy or flaky shapes,
these rocks may exhibit microfabrics resulting from the preferred orientation of flaky clay
minerals.
Clay fabric is defined as the orientation and arrangement or spatial distribution of the solid
particles and the particle-to-particle relationships.
The elements of clay fabric are illustrated in Figure 1 and 2, which descript the various kinds of
particle associations in clay suspensions. Clay particles may be deflocculated and randomly
dispersed is edge-to-edge flocculated, edge-to-face flocculated.
The kind of orientation that produces fissility in shales is of particular. Fissility is defined as
the property possessed by some rocks of splitting easily into thin layers along closely spaced,
roughly planar, and approximately parallel surfaces (Fig. 3).
Figure 1 Kinds and terminology of particle associations in clay suspensions: (A) dispersed and deflocculated, (B)
aggregated but deflocculated (face-to-face association, or parallel or oriented aggregation), (C) edge-to-face
flocculated but dispersed, (D) edge-to-edge flocculated but dispersed, (E) edge-to-face flocculated and aggregated,
(F) edge-to-edge flocculated and aggregated, (G) edge to-face and edge-to-edge flocculated and aggregated.
2
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
Figure 2: Schematic representations of major microstructural changes that occur in clay sediments
during deposition and lithification
Figure 3 : Laminated shale
Fissile is a subdivision of parting and that a fissile parting is thinner than a lamina (laminae are
strata less than 10mm thick); that is, fissile partings range in thickness from 0.5mm to 1.0 mm.
Parting thinner than 0.5mm is referred to as papery, and parting thicker than 1mm is platy,
flaggy, or slabby, depending upon thickness.)
A fissile fine-grained rock is one that tends to split relatively easily into thin, approximately
parallel layers that range in thickness from about 0.5mm to 1.0 mm.
3
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
Shales that split into thinner layers are called papery shales, and those that split into thicker units
are platy, flaggy, or slabby shales depending upon thickness of the parting, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Stratification and parting in shales
✓ Shale is fissile clastic sedimentary rocks formed from transportation, deposition and
compaction of detrital materials of silt and clay. Fissility of the clay is its main
distinguishing characteristic from mudstone and other sedimentary rocks.
✓ Fissility is defined as the property of a rock to split easily along thin closely spaced
parallel layers.
Classification of shale and mudstone
1. Classification of shale and mudstone based on texture
Shale characteristically contains fine-grained silt and clay particles (< 0.063mm). They are
therefore classified as silty shale or clay shale, depending on whether silts or clays dominate in
the constituents of the rock. Silty shale and clay shale may collectively be called argillaceous
shale. Shale may also contain appreciable amounts of sands; in which case they may be called
sandy shale or arenaceous shale.
4
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
In general Classification of fine grain sedimentary rocks based on texture as shown in figure 4
Figure 4. Textural classification of fine-grained rocks and sediments.
2. Classification based on the type of cementation/ /cementing materials
✓ Shale like other sedimentary rocks is cemented by some minerals or elements after
deposition and compaction.
✓ The dominant type of cementing material may be used in the classification of the shale
since this may affect the properties of the shale when used as an engineering
material.
✓ The common cementing materials are silica, iron oxide and calcite or lime.
Accordingly, shales may be classified as siliceous, ferruginous or calcareous.
3. Classification based on depositional environment
Three depositional sedimentary environments are recognized, continental, deltaic and marine.
Each depositional environment has various subdivisions.
Shales are generally deposited in lacustrine (continental), deltaic (transitional) and marine
depositional environments and may correspondingly be classified as such; that is, lacustrine,
deltaic and marine shale.
5
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
✓ Lacustrine deposits are characterized by mixture of clay, silt and sands; inorganic
carbonate precipitates; and various fresh water invertebrate organisms including
bivalves, ostracods, gastropods, diatoms and various plant deposits. Most lake
deposits are less than 10 m thick.
✓ Deltaic deposits are generally paralic (consisting of orderly sequences of shale and
sandstones formed as a result of alternating marine transgressions and regressions). They
are also characterized by shallow depth and concentration of
kaolinite/illite/montmorillonite clay minerals.
✓ Deposits of marine environment are characterized by homogenous rock sequences,
great depth, oxygen lack, and concentration of illite/montmorillonite clay minerals.
Shales of marine depositional environment are generally darker in color and richer in
marine planktonic fossils than shales deposited in lacustrine and deltaic environments.
4. Classification based on organic matter content
• Shales may be classified as carbonaceous or bituminous based on their organic matter
content.
• The organic matter content of carbonaceous and bituminous shales are generally above
10%.
• The organic matter induces black or grey color to the shales.
• When the dominant organic matter content is from plant fragments such as pollen grains,
stems and leaves, the shale is classified as carbonaceous, and the depositional
environment is usually continental (lacustrine) or transitional (deltaic or lagoon).
• When the dominant organic matter content in the shale is from animal fragments such
as fossils, the shale is classified as bituminous and its depositional environment is
usually deltaic or marine.
• Both carbonaceous and bituminous shales are important source rocks for generation of
petroleum oil and gas depending on their amount / type of kerogen content.
Organic matter in shale and mudstone
Most of the organic matter in shales is fine-size consists largely of the remains of
phytoplankton, zooplankton, spores, pollen, and fragments of plants. During burial and
diagenesis, this organic matter goes through a series of complex changes, brought about by
combined biochemical and chemical process. These diagenetic processes destroy much of the
organic matter and convert the remainder to an insoluble substance called kerogen. Most of the
organic matter in shales consists of kerogen. (a mixture of organic compounds with high
molecular weight). Although kerogen does not form more than about 1% of all the shales, the
vast majority of kerogen is in mudstones.
Most sedimentary rocks deposited under aqueous conditions contain some organic material.
The average relative abundance of organic carbon in shales and mudstones, ranges between
about 1.0 and 2.2 %.
6
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
Shales that are rich in organic matter (>5%) are known as black shales. Black color is given to
these rocks by organic matter. Some black shales contain considerably greater amounts than this
average, ranging to 10% or more.
✓ The abundance of organic matter in sedimentary rocks depends upon a number of factors,
including grain size of the sediment, depositional environment, and sediment
mineralogy.
Summary of shale classification
Importance of Shales to the Petroleum Industry
The generation and accumulation of petroleum involve three stages, generation in the source
rocks, migration through geologic formations and storage in rock reservoirs.
o Petroleum source rocks are geologic formations that are capable of generating petroleum
Coal, mudstone and shale are the recognized source rocks because of their organic carbon
contents.
o These organic contents, depending on their nature, depositional environment,
temperature, pressure, and depth of burial are capable of generating petroleum.
7
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
o Generally, gas is produced in high temperature/pressure, humic and plant dominant
organic sediments such as coal while oil is produced from less humic, fossil dominant
and moderate temperature/pressure marine shales.
Humic sediments: Organic-rich sediments that contain a high percentage of decomposed land
plants. They are typically found in environments like swamps, bogs, and coal-forming basins.
Gas generation is more common in humic-rich sediments (like coal), especially at high
temperature and pressure.
Opposite term: Sapropelic Refers to organic matter dominated by marine organisms (algae,
plankton, etc.). Found in marine shales. More commonly associated with oil formation.
o The source rocks have very low porosity and permeability, and thus the petroleum
once formed is trapped in the rock but may move out due to hydrodynamic pressure
conditions into a nearby porous rock from where it continues moving or migrating until it
is trapped or stored in a suitable geologic reservoir formation.
The petroleum oil or gas trapped in the reservoirs can then be exploited by drilling wells into the
reservoirs. Such reservoirs include sandstones, limestones as well as fractured shales. Shales as
impermeable rocks are also important seals in stratigraphic and structural traps. Shales are
therefore important as source rocks, reservoir, as well as seal rocks.
8
Geology II (Sedimentary Rocks) Chapter five
Summary of Shale Characteristics
• Shale is the most common sedimentary rock, which accounts for about 70 percent of
the Earth’s crust.
• Shale is a fine-grained rock made of compressed mud and clay.
• The defining characteristic of the shales is its fissility. In other words, shale is easily
divided into thin layers.
• Black and gray shales are common, but the rock can appear in any color.
• Shale is commercially important. It is used in the construction of bricks, ceramics,
tiles and Portland cement. Natural devil and oil can be removed from the oil shale.
• Rock can occur in the rivers, basins and oceans.
• It is common to find limestone and sandstone lying near shale.
• Roughly 55% of all sedimentary rocks are shale.
• Some shales are probably high in calcium due to the fossils they contain.
• The shale with a high natural gas content has recently been used as an energy source.
• Clay is an important component in shale rocks.
• Although the shale is normally gray, it may be black if it contains too much carbon
material.
• Approximately 95% of the organic matter in the sedimentary rock is found in shale or
mud.
• Shale is created by a process called compression.
• The shale exposed to extreme heat and pressure may vary in slate form.
References
1- Shale Rock: Geology, Composition, Uses. Helmenstine, Anne Marie,. (2018).
2- Rocks and minerals. Bonewitz, R. 2nd ed. London: DK Publishing.
3- A review of their classifications, properties and importance to the petroleum industry
Shales. Okeke, O. C., & Okogbue, C. O. Global Journal of Geological Sciences, 9(1), 75-
83.
4- Petrology of Sedimentary rocks / Second Edition / Sam Boggs. Book
5- Geomechanical and petrophysical properties of mudrocks: introduction. Rutter, E.,
Mecklenburgh, J, Taylor, K.