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Slate is a fine-grained, low-grade metamorphic rock. It has interlocking crystals (too small to be seen) in bands parallel with each other, which can be broken into sheets (cleavage).

Locality - Ballachulish slate quarry, Scotland


© Kim Traynor, geograph 2937594 cc-by-sa/2.0


Hand specimen

Locality

Rock in use

Close-up

Thin section p-polars

Thin section x-polars