Skiddaw Slate (as opposed to Honister slate which has a green hue) and is used for building, in the Lake District. The traditional buildings of Keswick and other settlements are almost entirely of Skiddaw slate. The slate is also used for making souvenirs, monuments, ornaments etc. Smaller fragments are used for gravels or for ornamental pathways. Skiddaw Slate Skiddaw slate is an early Ordovician metamorphosed sedimentary rock, as first identified on the slopes of Skiddaw in the English Lake District. The base of this series is unknown. The thickness could, therefore, amount to several thousand feet of sediment. These sediments were formed
Slate industry in Spain has led to the region’s unique geological development in respect of slate. Slate deposits are over 500 million years old, having been formed during the Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian periods of the Palaeozoic era. Essentially, slate forms when the clay minerals in shale are put under increased pressure with high temperatures. The clay starts to revert to the mica minerals which cause the rock to grow hard with pronounced cleavage) directions. It is this cleavage which enables slate to be broken along flat, even planes. A large variety of colours and textures of slate can be produced, and the final