Medical Definition of amnesia. 1: loss of memory sometimes including the memory of personal identity due to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness or sometimes induced by anesthesia a period of amnesia after the wreck.
Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that forms from the compaction of silt and clay-size mineral particles that we commonly call mud. This composition places shale in a category of sedimentary rocks known as mudstones.
Sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, which we will study later, may be thought of as derivative rocks. Igneous rocks are rocks formed from the crystallization of a liquid (molten rock). Igneous rocks may be divided into two categories. Intrusive or plutonic rocks crystallize from magma beneath the earth's surface. Extrusive or volcanic rocks crystallize from lava at the earth's surface. The texture of an igneous rock (fine-grained vs coarse-grained) is dependent on the rate of cooling of the melt: slow cooling allows large crystals to form, fast cooling yields small crystals.