Identify Marble Rock

Limestone or dolostone environment.

Identify marble rock.

The colored bands called veins that give marble its characteristic swirled appearance are caused by mineral impurities. When you crush a rock its powder isn t always the same color as the rock itself and this powder can help identify the minerals in the rock. You will be surprised how much damage the older used marbles often have. Marble is usually a light colored rock.

There are various physical properties of marble like hardness grain size fracture streak porosity luster strength etc which defines it. Marble can be scratched with a metal blade. Marble that contains impurities such as clay minerals iron oxides or bituminous material can be bluish gray pink yellow or black in color. 6 check whether the rock is slate by looking for flat sheet layers.

Marble forms at many temperatures and pressures. The key to identifying marble is noticing the large crystals that seem randomly distributed since it is a non foliated form of metamorphic rock. This coarse grained metamorphosed limestone ranges in color from white to gray to pink. Holing these samples up to the light and slowly turning them will reveal a slight sparkle.

You obviously don t want to crush your rock if you think it s valuable but that isn t necessary. You can conduct a streak test with a piece of unglazed porcelain the back of a porcelain tile is ideal. Marble tends to be light in color. When it is formed from a limestone with very few impurities it will be white in color.

Since condition is related to value it is helpful to identify the condition along with the kind of marbles. Medium to coarser grained light coloured and calcite crystals may be visible. Physical properties of marble physical properties of rocks are used to identify the type of rocks and to discover more about them. Because of this the surface of marble shows scratches and wear.

Authentic marble is a metaphoric rock formed by applying heat to limestone forming crystals of calcite a relatively soft mineral. Marble is a metamorphic rock that is created when limestone is subjected to a considerable amount of heat and pressure within the earth s crust making it a dense and durable material. The visible crystals in marble give it a characteristic granular surface and appearance but there are other properties used to identify the rock. Marble is considered to be a strong hard stone even though its primary mineral calcite only has a mohs hardness of 3.

Marble can vary widely in color but the most common colors are white and grey.