Identify My Rock Marble

Authentic marble is a metaphoric rock formed by applying heat to limestone forming crystals of calcite a relatively soft mineral.

Identify my rock marble.

You might find somebody who can identify a rock as quartz or jasper but there are so many variations of the material based on its origin color or pattern that it s really hard to find somebody who can absolutely identify some of the rarer varieties and their origins or trade names and the value can vary widely based on that information. Marble tends to be light in color. You can conduct a streak test with a piece of unglazed porcelain the back of a porcelain tile is ideal. Igneous rocks such as granite or lava are tough frozen melts with little texture or layering rocks like these contain mostly black white and or gray minerals.

The visible crystals in marble give it a characteristic granular surface and appearance but there are other properties used to identify the rock. You obviously don t want to crush your rock if you think it s valuable but that isn t necessary. 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. Sedimentary rocks such as limestone or shale are hardened sediment with sandy or clay like layers strata they are usually brown to gray in color and may have fossils and water or wind marks.

Marble is considered to be a strong hard stone even though its primary mineral calcite only has a mohs hardness of 3. Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when limestone is subjected to the heat and pressure of metamorphism.