TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

CENTRAL DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY

KRITIPUR, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

PRESENTATION ON:

MUDROCKS

PREPARED BY:SAMIKSHYA ACHARYA

ROLL NO. 10/077(Msc.1st sem)
CENTRAL DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY
KRITIPUR, KATHMANDU, NEPAL
 MUDROCKS

Introduction:
 refers to a mixture of clay- and silt-
grade quartz material.

 Mudrocks constitute some 45–55%

of sedimentary rock successions.

 major depositional sites are river

flood plains and lakes, large deltas,
the more distal area of clastic
Photograph1:- Mudstone Bed.
shelves, basin slopes and deep-sea
floors.
 Grain size, clay <4micrometer in diameter, whereas silt is
between 4 -62micrometer.

 Mudrocks, particularly in the field, the terms Mudstone,

Shale, Claystone and Siltstone are best qualified by attributes
referring to colour, degree of Fissility, sedimentary structures,
and mineral, organic and fossil content

 Detailed studies in the laboratory, especially the use of X-ray

diffraction (XRD), may be required to determine the
mineralogy.
Table 1:- Features to note in the description of Mudrocks.
Figure 1:- X-Ray diffraction method for identification of
minerals.
 Textures and Structures of Mudrocks

 The particle size of unconsolidated muds can be measured

using a sedimentation chamber or settling tube (McManus
(1988) and Singer et al (1988).

 The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used for studying

well-lithified mudrocks and the back-scattered mode in
particular can give much useful information on textures (Pye
& Krinsley, 1984; Welton, 1984; White et al., 1984; McHardy
& Birnie, 1987).
Backscattered
Photograph 2:-scanning electron micrograph showing angular quartz silt grains (grey),
coccoliths (round white grains) and pyrite (white crystals) in dark matrix of clay,
quartz and amorphous organic matter. Field of view 200 ¥ 200 mm. Courtesy of Joe
Macquaker.
 TEXTURES TYPES

 Elements of texture that can be observed in Mudrocks include the

shapes of the grains, the Fissility or lack of Fissility, and laminations.
 The origin of Fissility is mainly due to alignment of clay minerals as
a result of compaction, in addition to the presence of lamination. A
.
• Grain shape: Clay minerals are generally angular and sheet like.
 Silt size quartz grains are usually angular or platy shaped.
(Photograph no. 2)
• Fissility: Whether or not a mudrock is fissile or non-fissile depends
on several factors.
a) The abundance of Clay Minerals.
b) The degree of preferred orientation of the clay minerals.
c) Bioturbation of organism within or on the surface of the sediment.
Photograph 3:- Photograph showing the Fissility in Mudshale developed due
to high proportion of clay minerals.
• Laminations:
 parallel layers less than 1 cm thick.
 the result of variation of grain size
and/or changes in composition.
 Size graded laminae may be
deposited from low-density
turbidity currents followed by
deposition from suspension
currents in relatively short periods
of time (hours or days).
 Other laminae develop over longer
periods of times (months or years)
if there is a seasonal or annual
fluctuation in sediment supply
and/or biological activity.
 Organic laminae in Mudrocks, for
example, may be produced by
seasonal microbial blooms.
Photograph 4:- Photograph showing Lineation
develop in Mudrock
Figure 2:- Mudrocks are stacks of more or less oriented platy clay minerals,
like piles of cards. Deformation and compaction parallelize these ‘cards’
producing shales. Graphics: Samuele Papeschi/GW
RIPPLE MARK
 Small-scale current ripples occur in siltstones and give rise to
cross-lamination .
 Current ripples are small-scale bedforms with wavelengths of
less than a few tens of centimetres and heights of less than
several centimetres.
 In profile they are asymmetric with a steeper, downstream-
facing lee side and a gentle upstream-facing stoss side.
 Symmetrical wave-formed ripples also can form in siltstones.
 In tidal flats, mud and fine-sand to silt are deposited
alternatively through fluctuating current regimes and/or
sediment supply giving rise to flaser (ripple-shaped fine
sand-silt occur in mudstone), and lenticular bedding (ripple-
shaped mud occurs within fine sandsilt).
Photograph 5:- Photograph showing Climbing Ripple marks present in
Mudrock.
MASSIVE BEDDING:
 Mudrocks lacking any
internal sedimentary
structures are called massive.
 This massive nature is due to
deposition from high
viscosity currents as
mudflows and debris flows;
or due to bioturbation that
destroys any original
structures as lamination, mass
sediment movement (sliding),
dewatering, soil processes
Photograph 6:- Photograph showing massive
(pedogenesis) and root bed of Mudrock.
growth.
MUDCRACK

 Mudcracks are common in fine-grained

sediments and formed through
desiccation.

 Desiccation cracks are typically

polygonal

 They are common in tidal-flat facies.

 Shrinkage cracks also may develop sub

aqueously as a result of Syneresis
(contraction of the sediment through loss
of pore water).

Photograph 7: Photograph showing

 Syneresis cracks are trilete and spindle
Mudcrack.
shaped.
SLUMP
 terms refer to down slope mass movement of sediment upon a
slide plane, with significant internal deformation

 Folds and thrusts and wholesale brecciation occur within

slumped masses

LOADCAST
 Load casts are a common sole structure, seen as bulbous,
downward-directed protuberances of a sandstone bed into
underlying sediment, normally a Mudrock

 variation in shape and size, and one common feature is the

squeezing of mud up into the sand to form flame structures
Photograph 8:- Photograph showing Load cast in the Mudrock.
 Cross Lamination
 The structure commonly
present in granular
Mudrocks that consists of
tabular, irregularly
lenticular, or wedge-
shaped bodies lying
essentially parallel to the
general stratification and
which themselves show a
pronounced laminated
structure in which the
laminae are steeply
inclined to the general
bedding. Photograph 9:- Cross lamination present in
Mudrock.
 Nodules and Concretions
 Many Mudrocks contain nodules, also called
concretion.

 These are regular to irregular, spherical, ellipsoidal to

flattened bodies, commonly composed of calcite,
siderite, pyrite, chert or calcium phosphate together
with some original sediment.

 Nodules containing an internal network of cracks,

particularly ones that widen towards the interior, are
referred to as septarian nodules.
Nodules

Photograph 10:- Nodules present in Mudrock.

 Mineral composition

1. CLAY MINERAL
 Clay minerals are hydrous aluminosilicates with a
sheet or layered structures; they are phyllosilicates
like the micas.
 Clay minerals consist of sheets of silica tetrahedral
and Al or Mg octahedral linked together by oxygen
atoms common to both. The stacking arrangement of
the sheets determines the clay mineral type, as does
the replacement of Si and Al by other elements.
 Structurally, there are two basic groups of clay
minerals are the kandite group and the smectite
group.
Figure 3:- Diagrams illustrating the structures of clay minerals.
Photograph 11:- Scanning electron microscopic image of kaolinite crystals, which
indicates the hexagonal (six-sided) piles of crystals and interlayer spaces.
2. Quartz
 Quartz in Mudrocks is mainly
of silt-size, although coarser
sand-size may occur,
especially where Mudrocks
grade laterally or vertically
into sandstones.
 Quartz in mudstones is mainly
detrital, with much less
common of diagenetic origin.
It is invariably angular, in
comparison with more
rounded quartz sand.
Photograph 12:Photomicrograph and back-scattered electron image
of Upper Jurassic Mudrock. Buckinghamshire, England.
Photomicrograph shows Mudrock with quartz silt (white) and
scattered pyrite (black grains). Field of view 1 ¥ 1 mm.
3.Organic Matter
 In some cases, like oil Shales, the carbon compounds
undergo further transformations that convert them to
hydrocarbons like petroleum.

 Otherwise, the carbon or carbon compounds

generally tend to give the rock a dark gray to black
color.
4. Other Constituents

 Feldspars may be present in Mudrocks but with much

less abundance than quartz.
 Muscovite is common but biotite is much less abundant.
 Calcite may occur as skeletal grains as well as digenetic
form, in addition to other carbonate minerals such as
dolomite and siderite that all can be disseminated or
concentrated as nodules
 Pyrite occurs as cubes, framboids and nodules in dark,
organic rich Mudrocks.
 Other minerals present locally are glauconite, berthierine,
hematite, gypsum, anhydrite and halite.
 COLOUR

 Depends on the mineralogy and

geochemistry of the rock
 The main controls of color are
the organic content, pyrite and
oxidation state of iron
 With increasing organic matter
and pyrite, Mudrocks take a
darker grey color and eventually
become black.
 Red and purple color results from
the presence of ferric oxide,
hematite, occurring chiefly as
grain coatings and intergrowth
Photograph 12:- Photograph showing red
with clay particles. Mudrocks.
 (a) (b)

Photograph 13:- Photograph shows : (a) Black Mudrock and (b) Green Mudrock.
 Red color of flooding plain mudstones reflects oxidizing
nature of depositional and early diagenetic environment
 Green Mudrocks contain no hematite, organic matter or iron
sulfide, but the color comes from ferrous iron within the
lattices of illite and chlorite.
 Green spots and patches in some red Mudrocks are sites of
iron reduction from local occurrence of organic matter
 Other colors in Mudrocks result from mixing of color-
producing components. For example, olive and yellow
Mudrocks may owe this color to a mixing of green minerals
and organic matter.
 Some Mudrocks have a color mottling, where there are
different shades of grey that may be the result of bioturbation
 The color mottling is common in lacustrine and floodplain
muds and marls.
 Classification of Mudrocks
• Classification of Mudrocks is mainly based on
observations one can make in the field or at the level
of a hand specimen.
• The classification depends on the grain size of the
minerals making up the rock and whether or not the
rock is fissile or non-fissile.
• A fissile rock tends to break along sheet-like planes
that are nearly parallel to the bedding planes.
Figure 4:- Classification of siliciclastic sediments based on sand, silt
and clay content.
Table 2:- Some geological classifications of Mudrocks (Purnell and Netterberg 1975).
 SHALES
 Shales are fine-grained laminated or fissile clastic sedimentary
rocks with predominance of silt and clay as the detrital
components (Krumbein and Sloss,1963).
 They are formed from silts and clays that have been deposited
and compacted or hardened into rocks.
 On the basis of texture, the most common types of shales are
silty shale (silt dominant) and clay shale (clay dominant).
 These two types of shales are also called argillaceous shales.
Occasionally, shales may also contain appreciable amounts of
sands in which case they may be called sandy shale (arenaceous
shale).
 Black shales with high proportion of organic matter content are
called carbonaceous or bituminous shale. Shales that contain
high amount of lime are known as calcareous shale.
Photograph 14:- Photograph showing Shales.
 Types of Shales

Table 3:- A geological classification of shale Underwood, 1967; Fleming et

al, 1970)
 Residual Clays
 It is also called soil like
shale.
 Clay material formed in
place by the weathering
of rock, derived either
from the chemical decay
of feldspar and other rock
minerals or from the
removal of non clay-
mineral constituents by
solution from a clay-
bearing rock (such as an
argillaceous limestone); a
soil or a product of the Photograph 15:- Photograph showing
soil-forming process. residual clays.
 Common Shales

 common shales are dug

from open pits.

 Most products made from

common shales are
processed and marketed in a
similar manner to refractory
clays. Common shale
require little processing.

 Typically they are crushed

or ground. Photograph 16:- Photograph showing
common Shales.
 Red Shales and Mudstone

 Shale is often a red or gray

rock made of mostly clay
minerals. (a)
 This sedimentary rock forms
in quiet water setting such as
lakes and the deep parts of the
ocean.
 Red and purple color results (b)

from the presence of ferric

oxide, hematite, occurring
chiefly as grain coatings and
intergrowth with clay
particles. Photograph 17 :- Photograph showing Red shales (a)
and Mudstone (b).
 Black Shales
 Black Shales also
called Carboniferous
Shale, variety of shale that
contains abundant organic
matter, pyrite, and
sometimes carbonate
nodules or layers and, in
some locations,
concentrations of copper,
nickel, uranium, and
vanadium.
Photograph 18:- Photograph showing Black
Shales.
 Siliceous Shales

 The Shales 70-85%

amorphous silica are
called Siliceous Shales.

 A hard, fine-grained rock

of shaly structure
generally believed to be
shale altered by
silicification.
Photograph 19:- Photograph showing Siliceous
Shales.
 Calcareous Shales and marls

 Those having a large percentage

of calcite.
 They are generally light gray or
yellowish.
 Shales are commercially
important, having many
applications in the ceramics
industry.
 Calcareous marls grade into clays,
by diminution in the amount of
lime, and into clayey limestones.
 Greensand marls contain the
green, potash-rich mica mineral
glauconite
Photograph 20:- Photograph showing Calcareous shales and
Marls.
 Mischellaneous Shales

 Mischellaneous Shales
are primary sediments
in which phosphate
nodules or micro
nodules have formed
diagnostically by
precipitation of calcium
phosphates derived
mainly from organic
phosphorus. Photograph 21:- Photograph showing Mischellaneous
Shales.
 Siltstones and Loess
 Siltstone also known as
aleuorite.
 Composed mostly of Silt.
 Formed from mudrock with low
clay mineral content with lack
of fissility which help it to
distinguished from shale.

 Loess is composed largely of

silt-size grains that are loosely
cemented by calcium carbonate.
 It is usually homogeneous and
highly porous and is traversed
by vertical capillaries that
permit the sediment to fracture
and form vertical bluffs.
Photograph 22:- Photograph showing siltstone bed and Loess
formed in sedimentary terrain.
Origin and Distribution of Clay minerals in modern
Sediment
• Clay minerals mainly distributed in modern sediment by three
origin.
i) Inheritance
 The clays are detrital and have been formed in another area,
perhaps at a much earlier time, but they are stable in their
present location.
ii) Neoformation
 The clays have formed in situ, and they have either been
precipitated from solution or formed from amorphous silicate
material. With transformation, inherited clays are modified by
ion exchange or cation rearrangement.
iii) Transformation
 Transformed clays will carry a memory of inherited
characteristics from the source area, together with information
on the chemical environment to which the sample was later
subjected.
Distribution
 There are three major locations where clay-mineral formation
takes place:
1. In the weathering and soil environment.
2. In the depositional environment.
3. During diagenesis and into low-grade metamorphism.
Figure 5:- The distribution of Clay minerals through time.
 Diagenesis of Clay minerals and Mudrocks
• Clay minerals can be modified
and altered during early and late
diagenesis, and into
metamorphism.
• The main physical diagenetic
process affecting Mudrocks is
compaction.
• Compaction in Mudrocks expels
water, reduces thickness of the
deposited sediment and reduces
porosity. Upon deposition, muds
contain 70-90% water by
volume, which could be reduced
to 30% at a burial depth of 100m
Figure 6:- Diagram illustrating the stages of water loss
from muddy sediments with increasing depth of burial.
• Evidence of compaction in
Mudrocks is given by the fracture
of shells, flattening of burrows,
and the bending of laminae
around shells and early
diagenetic nodules.
• Chemical diagenesis, or the
change of chemistry and/or
mineralogy of clay minerals,
takes place mainly through the
rise of temperature
accompanying increased burial
depth.
• The main change is the alteration
of smectites to illite via mixed-
layer clays of smectiteillite
Figure 7:- Diagram illustrating the changes of clay minerals with
increasing depth of burial and into metamorphism.
Mud Sediments in Depositional Environments
• There are three major groups of Mudrocks in the
geologic record:
1) Residual Mudrocks formed in situ through
contemporaneous processes of weathering and soil
formation upon preexisting rocks and sediments.
2) Detrital Mudrocks formed through normal
sedimentary processes of erosion, transportation and
deposition.
3) Volcani-clastic Mudrocks formed through in situ
weathering and/or later alteration of Volcaniclastic
deposits.
Thank You!!