File:Black shale (Ohio Shale, Upper Devonian; Lazarus Run, Delaware County, Ohio, USA) 2.jpg

English: Black shale from the Devonian of Ohio, USA. (bedding plane view)

This sample is from the Ohio Shale, a thick Upper Devonian unit representing deposition in a moderately deep, usually-anoxic seafloor environment. The formation has been subdivided into three parts (in ascending order): Huron Shale Member, Chagrin Shale Member, and Cleveland Shale Member. The outcrop appearances of the three different members are best developed in northeastern Ohio, in the Cleveland area. The Huron and Cleveland are black shales and the Chagrin is gray shale. In central Ohio, the Chagrin Shale lithofacies occurs in a relatively thin, poorly developed interval - it is referred to as the Three Lick Bed. The Three Lick consists of interbedded gray and black shales.

Black shale was a widely-distributed lithofacies during the Late Devonian. The Ohio Shale is equivalent to the Chattanooga Shale, the Antrim Shale, and the New Albany Shale in surrounding states.

The straight edges of this specimen are joint planes.

Stratigraphy: Huron Shale Member, Ohio Shale, Famennian Stage, upper Upper Devonian

Locality: along Lazarus Run, just north of Winter Road & just east of Chapman Road & just east of the Olentangy River, west of Route 23, northeastern Liberty Township, western Delaware County, central Ohio, USA