Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering. Slate is frequently grey in colour especially when seen en masse covering roofs. However, slate occurs in a variety of colours even from a single locality. For example slate from North Wales can be found in many shades of grey from pale to dark and may also be purple, green or cyan.

Slate is not to be confused with shale, from which it may be formed, or schist.

Historical mining terminology

Before the mid 19^th century, the terms slate, shale and schist were not sharply distinguished. In the context of underground coal mining, the term slate was commonly used to refer to shale well into the 20^th century. For example, roof slate refers to shale above a coal seam, and draw slate refers to roof slate that falls from the mine roof as the coal is removed.

Chemical composition

Slate is mainly composed of quartz and muscovite or illite, often along with biotite, chlorite, hematite, and pyrite and, less frequently, apatite, graphite, kaolin, magnetite, tourmaline, or zircon as well as feldspar. Occasionally, as in the purple slates of North Wales, ferrous reduction spheres form around iron nuclei, leaving a light green spotted texture. These spheres are sometimes deformed by a subsequent applied stress field to ovoids, which appear as ellipses when viewed on a cleavage plane of the specimen.

Uses

Slate in buildings

Slate can be made into roofing slates, also called roofing shingles, installed by a slater. Slate has two lines of breakability: cleavage and grain, which make it possible to split the stone into thin sheets. When broken, slate retains a natural appearance while remaining relatively flat and easily stackable.

Slate tiles are often used for interior and exterior flooring, stairs, walkways, and wall cladding. Tiles are installed and set on mortar and grouted along the edges. Chemical sealants are often used on tiles to improve durability and appearance, increase stain resistance, reduce efflorescence, and increase or reduce surface smoothness. Tiles are often sold gauged, meaning that the back surface is ground for ease of installation. Slate flooring can however be slippery when used in external locations subject to rain. Slate tiles were used in 19th century UK building construction (apart from roofs) and in slate quarrying areas such as Bethesda, Wales there are still many buildings wholly constructed of slate. Slates can also be set into walls to provide a rudimentary damp-proof membrane. Small offcuts are used as shims to level floor joists. In areas where slate is plentiful it is also used in pieces of various sizes for building walls and hedges, sometimes combined with other kinds of stone.

Other uses

Because it is a good electrical insulator and fireproof, it was used to construct early 20th century electric switchboards and relay controls for large electric motors. Fine slate can also be used as a whetstone to hone knives.

Due to its thermal stability and chemical inertness, slate has been used for laboratory bench tops and for billiard table tops. In 18th and 19th century schools, slate was extensively used for blackboards and individual writing slates for which slate or chalk pencils were used. They were largely used in the 20th century, though writing slates were largely replaced by lined paper and notebooks, and slates still continue in wide usage.

In areas where it is available, high-quality slate is used for gravestones and commemorative tablets, and by artists in various genres.

Slate is often used as a decor in freshwater aquariums. Slate will not alter the chemistry of water (except in the slate containing feldspar which may leach silicates into the water resulting in excess diatom growth in marine aquaria).

Slate is used in some desert reptile enclosures because it holds heat very well. Traditional Japanese Go equipment uses slate for the black pieces.

Slate extraction

See main article at Slate industry

In Eurasia

Slate-producing regions in Europe include Wales (see slate industry in Wales), Cornwall (famously the village of Delabole), and Cumbria (see Burlington Slate Quarries, Honister Slate Mine and Skiddaw Slate) in the United Kingdom; parts of France (Anjou, Ardennes, Bretagne, Savoie); Belgium (Ardenne); Liguria in northern Italy especially between the town of Lavagna (which means chalkboard in Italian) and Fontanabuona valley; Portugal especially around Valongo in the north of the country; Germany's (Moselle River-region, Hunsrück, Eifel, Westerwald, Thuringia and north-Bavaria); Alta, Norway (actually schist not a true slate) and Galicia. Some of the slate from Wales and Cumbria is colored slate (non-blue): (purple and formerly green in Wales) and (green in Cumbria). China has vast slate deposits; in recent years its export of finished and unfinished slate has increased: it has slate in various colors.

In the Americas

Slate is abundant in Brazil (the second biggest producer of slate) around Papagaio in Minas Gerais (responsible for 95% of the extraction of slate in Brazil), the east coast of Newfoundland, the Slate Belt of Eastern Pennsylvania, and the Slate Valley of Vermont and New York, where colored slate is mined in the Granville, New York area.

A major slating operation existed in Monson, Maine during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The slate found in Monson is usually a dark purple to blackish color, and many local structures are still roofed with slate tiles. The roof of St. Patrick's Cathedral was made of roofing slate from Monson, as was the headstone of John F. Kennedy.

Slate is also found in the Arctic and was used by the Inuit to make the blades for ulus.

Fossils

thumb|200px|right|Shale can metamorphise into slate; sometimes the fossils may remain intact.
Because slate was formed in low heat and pressure, compared to a number of other metamorphic rocks, some fossils can be found in slate; sometimes even microscopic remains of delicate organisms.