Topic summary
Slaty cleavage
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Cleavage (geology).
Slaty cleavage
Since the nature of cleavage is dependent on scale, slaty cleavage is defined as having 0.01 mm or less of space occurring between layers. Slaty cleavage often occurs after diagenesis and is the first cleavage feature to form after deformation begins. The tectonic strain must be enough to allow a new strong foliation to form, i.e. slaty cleavage.