Can Marble Be Foliated

It is because they are made of only one mineral.

Can marble be foliated.

Although it is still used for making statures this rock can also be. In its pure form marble is a white stone with a crystalline and sugary appearance consisting of calcium carbonate caco 3 usually marble contains other minerals including quartz graphite pyrite and iron oxides these minerals can give marble a pink brown gray green or variegated coloration. Foliated metamorphic rocks such as gneiss phyllite schist and slate have a layered or banded appearance that is produced by exposure to heat and directed pressure. Marble was considered one of the most beautiful and useful rocks throughout history.

When there are more minerals the alignment is more obvious as the rock appears layered. Non foliated metamorphic rocks such as hornfels marble quartzite and novaculite do not have a layered or banded appearance. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. Examples of foliated metamorphic rocks would be schist gneiss and slate.

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals most commonly calcite or dolomite marble is typically not foliated although there are exceptions in geology the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone. That is because marble composition is almost 100 calcite. Foliation is more easily seen on a microscopic scale rather than in hand specimen. Marble will not show noticeable foliation although it undergoes some pressure during metamorphism.

Even calcite crystals realign.