Clay Gall
Clay gall is a markedly flattened and somewhat rounded pellet or curled fragment, chip, or flake of clay, generally embedded in a sandy matrix and esp. abundant at the base of sandy beds. It may arise from drying and cracking a thin layer of coherent mud, the fragment commonly rolled or blown into the sand and buried, and forming a lenticular bleb upon wetting.
When a patch of clay or mud dries out, that upper surface cracks and peels away from the under layers. These thin “leaves” of hardened clay may occasionally be transported a short distance and deposited in sand or similar sediment in the form of flat or lens-shaped clay galls, generally oriented parallel to the bedding.
Clay galls:
BURT, 1930 has defined, Mud curls or cylinders formed by drying and cracking of thin layers of coherent mud; commonly rolled or blown into sand and buried; flattened upon wetting forming a lenticular bleb of clay or shale.
Reference
- BURT, F. A., 1930: Origin and significance of clay-galls. Pan-Am. Geol. 53, 105-110.
Clay gall is a markedly flattened and somewhat rounded pellet or curled fragment, chip, or flake of clay, generally embedded in a sandy matrix and esp. abundant at the base of sandy beds. It may arise from drying and cracking a thin layer of coherent mud, the fragment commonly rolled or blown into the sand and buried, and forming a lenticular bleb upon wetting.
When a patch of clay or mud dries out, that upper surface cracks and peels away from the under layers. These thin “leaves” of hardened clay may occasionally be transported a short distance and deposited in sand or similar sediment in the form of flat or lens-shaped clay galls, generally oriented parallel to the bedding.
Clay galls:
BURT, 1930 has defined, Mud curls or cylinders formed by drying and cracking of thin layers of coherent mud; commonly rolled or blown into sand and buried; flattened upon wetting forming a lenticular bleb of clay or shale.
Reference
- BURT, F. A., 1930: Origin and significance of clay-galls. Pan-Am. Geol. 53, 105-110.