Commercially, shale is significant because it is used to make Portland cement, ceramics, tiles, and bricks.
Why is shale used in cement?
Burnt oil shale, unlike other supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), when finely ground, exhibits both hydraulic and pozzolanic reactivity, enabling it to harden without the need for activation (in contrast to purely pozzolanic materials).
What kind of clay is in Michigan?
The surface clays of Michigan can be broadly categorized into three classes: morainic clays, lake clays, and residual clays. The first two are products of the Pleistocene Age, while the third, residual clays, represents weathered shale in areas of shale outcrops and thin glacial drift cover.
What is shale made out of?
Shale typically contains other clay-size mineral particles, such as quartz, chert, and feldspar, in addition to clay-size mineral grains, the majority of which are clay minerals, such as illite, kaolinite, and smectite.
Slate is used for a variety of things, including snooker tables, roofing, gravestones, flooring, and garden ornaments.