Rocks and Their OriginsCole, Grenville A. J. (Grenville Arthur James)
Science
Rocks and Their Origins
Cole, Grenville A. J. (Grenville Arthur James)
Rocks
Sometimes, after the cleavage is established, compression folds it,
just as strata may be folded. Still greater compression may obliterate
it and establish a new cleavage, and all gradations towards this
result are traceable. The cleavage layers, again, may be wrinkled into
a series of sharp folds, thrust over in one direction, and parting
may then take place along the ridges of these folds, which furnish
a second series of planes of weakness in the rock. This type of
separation has been styled a _strain-slip cleavage_, and by Leith a
_fracture-cleavage_, in distinction from ordinary or _flow-cleavage_.
Shearing may take place along it, and the true or flow cleavage-planes
become thus broken across and faulted.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Landslide of Limestone over Shale. Near
Luc-en-Diois, Drôme, France. The scale is shown by the main road
passing among the blocks.]
Commercial slates should exhibit none of these structures that
interfere with genuine cleavage. An argillaceous rock of uniform
grain, compressed evenly over a considerable district, is required
for successful slate-quarries. Yet all quarrymen will admit that the
material varies from point to point, and that the best slate runs in
"veins." Some of the coarser slates, with irregular surfaces, and
with splashes of colour, such as are provided by limonite, are sought
after for their picturesque effect; while slates which do not split
readily enough for roofing purposes may have their use for flags,
mantel-shelves, and billiard-tables.
ARGILLACEOUS ROCKS IN THE FIELD
Obviously, nothing can be more different than the features of a country
made of clay, when acted on by denudation, and those of one where
slate prevails. In the former case, low rounded hills rise, without
any definite arrangement, above hollows where rushes spring amid the
grass. The streams are muddy, and they readily cut their way down to
base-level, meandering thenceforward in a clay-alluvium. Shales provide
bolder features, but crumble rapidly where the climate permits of frost
and thawing. They may be protected by more resisting rocks, but provide
oozy surfaces underground, over which the higher masses may slide
disastrously (Fig. 9).
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Weathering of Shale. Granite mountains behind.
Above La Grave, Lautaret Pass, Isère, France.]
Shale-beds, when uplifted and folded, slip away in flakes from one
another, supplying very ragged and irregular material to the taluses,
and exposing shimmering surfaces when damp with rain (Fig. 10). Among
hilly lands, the passes will often be found to be due to bands of
shale, which are cut down by weathering far sooner than the rocks on
either hand. In central England, the Lias shales, despite the presence
of some limestones, have been worn down almost to a plain, wherever the
overlying Middle Jurassic limestone has been removed.
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