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Uses of Phyllite
Phyllite does not have any important industrial uses. It is not strong enough to serve well as a crushed stone. However, slabs of phyllite are occasionally trimmed and used as landscape, paving or sidewalk stone. Phyllite can provide valuable information about the geologic conditions that a geographic area or a rock mass was subjected to in…
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Composition of Phyllite
Phyllite is composed mainly of tiny grains of mica minerals such as muscovite, or sericite. Fine-grained quartz and feldspar are often abundant in phyllite. These mineral grains are usually smaller than what can be easily seen with the unaided eye. They form through the low-grade metamorphic transformation of clay minerals. Crystals of other metamorphic minerals such as andalusite, biotite, cordierite, garnet, and staurolite might also form…
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How Does Phyllite Form?
Phyllite was originally a fine-grained sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone, composed mainly of clay minerals in a semi-random orientation. The rock was then buried and subjected to enough directed pressure to move the clay mineral grains towards parallel alignment, and enough heat and chemical activity to begin transforming the clay mineral grains into chlorite or a mica…
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What Is Phyllite?
Phyllite is a foliated metamorphic rock that has been subjected to low levels of heat, pressure and chemical activity. It is composed mainly of flake-shaped mica minerals in parallel alignment. The strong parallel alignment of the mica grains allows the rock to be easily split into sheets or slabs. The alignment of the mica grains gives phyllite a reflective sheen…
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Other Uses for Novaculite
AGGREGATE Novaculite is a very durable rock that resists abrasion and is well suited for use as road base, railroad ballast, and rip-rap. Although it works especially well, its use in these applications is avoided. The reason: novaculite is so abrasive on metal that it causes excessive wear on excavating equipment used to mine it,…
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A World-Famous Sharpening Stone
European settlers in the Ouachita region were the second people to mine the Arkansas Novaculite Formation. They valued it for a different reason. They found that novaculite could be used to sharpen metal tools and weapons. They soon began producing sharpening tools and trading them with distant partners. Arkansas “whetstones,” “oil stones,” and “sharpening stones”…
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First Use of Arkansas Novaculite
Native Americans were the first people to mine the Arkansas Novaculite Formation. They noticed its conchoidal fracture and discovered that it could be knapped – just like flint – into projectile points, scrapers, and cutting tools. They mined novaculite, used it to manufacture cutting tools and weapons, and traded the material and products over a broad area.…
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Novaculite Localities
The most famous locality for novaculite is where the Arkansas Novaculite Formation outcrops in the Ouachita Mountains of central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. It is a Devonian to Mississippian-age rock unit that ranges from about 60 feet thick in the northern Ouachitas to about 900 feet thick in the southern Ouachitas. Outcrops of the Arkansas…
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What is Novaculite?
Novaculite is a dense, hard, fine-grained siliceous rock that breaks with a conchoidal fracture. It forms from sediments deposited in marine environments where organisms such as diatoms (single-celled algae that secrete a hard shell composed of silicon dioxide) are abundant in the water. When the diatoms die, their silicon dioxide shells fall to the seafloor. In…
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Peking Duck Pizza With Caramelized Onions & Hoisin Sauce
Ingredients: Pizza Dough: Toppings: Caramelized Onions: Garlic Oil Paste: Instructions: Make the dough: Caramelized onions: Make the garlic oil paste: Assemble: Nutrition Calories: 250kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 105mg | Potassium: 143mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 70IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 23mg | Iron: 1mg