Welcome to the roofing slate dictionary!

This pages offer a broad information about (roofing-) slate for geologists, craftsmen, dealer and the 'interested layman'. The explanations give an approach to the different aspects of slate. Because the pages are also thought to be for non-professional geologists certain statements or explanations were simplified for the sake of understanding so that they appear not really exact or precise to professionals.
I wrote a text book about slate I consider it as a comprehensive text book of slate, covering the different topics from the development, properties, mining and production as well as world-wide deposits. Here the different topics are explained in more detail and it is published by the Springer Verlag at the beginning of 2020.

Slate should not be considered isolated as a pure rock but also in relation to its application and material standards. Thus, slate is also introduced as dimension stone; that is the usage for roofing and the different national styles as well as for other architectonical purposes.

Knowledge is always subject to change and therefore, any suggestion or improvement are highly welcomed. I visited most of the slate deposits of the Western World but any hint to improve my sites is appreciate.
You will find the online map of the slate deposits and my idea is to gather all information as a kind of a collaborative work. Everybody is invited to contribute information, data and photographs.

Jörn Wichert