What is this easily breakable grey soft rock?

[jonnyc55]

I found this grey soft rock in a fragmented pile on its own in the mud with other rocks. What is it?


(Note: go here https://imgur.com/a/HKWTn0l if these images take too long)

This is a bit of the pile I collected:



This is before I broke a bit:



This is when I snapped it. Which was easy:



And this is a close up:




Any ideas? Thanks.

 

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[ToddsPoint]

Mudstone? Gary

 

[Rookster]

Welcome to Tnet from Mississippi.

 

[kingskid1611]

Possibly shale. it breaks really easy....

 

[jonnyc55]

Mudstone? Gary

Yeah I googled mudstone, this might be it. I saw shale in the mudstone wikipage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudstone

shale looks close to what I got:

Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.063 millimetres (0.0025 in)[1] with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time, the platy clay minerals may become aligned, with the appearance of fissility or parallel layering. This finely bedded material that splits readily into thin layers is called shale, as distinct from mudstone.

It must be shale, it looks like shale and it also splits readily. Related to mudstone though.

What do you think? Is it shale? The picture of shale I gave is what my rocks looked like on the floor - clumped together but all broken up into pieces.

 

[jonnyc55]

Mudstone? Gary

Thanks, I checked Wikipedia on mudstone and found shale, it seems a closer fit.



The above image is what I saw when walking, bits of grey rock clumped together but broken up into pieces.

Welcome to Tnet from Mississippi.

Thank you! .

Possibly shale. it breaks really easy....

Yeah, if it breaks really easy, then it must be shale because it is also grey. All the characteristics are there for shale.

Thanks guys.

Is this oil shale?

The term oil shale generally refers to any sedimentary rock that contains solid bituminous materials (called kerogen)

So will my shale have Kerogen?


Interesting! Is shale used in fracking? Awesome.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Mudstone is a generic term for most stones formed from mud/clay. Shale is one form of mudstone which cleaves/breaks into "sheets".
From the pics I'd say mudstone, but not shale.