The name “marble” is used in a different way in the dimension stone trade. Any crystalline carbonate rock that has an ability to accept a polish is called “marble.” The name is sometimes used for other soft rocks such as travertine, verd antique, serpentine, and some limestones.

Marble occurs in large deposits that can be hundreds of feet thick and geographically extensive. This allows it to be economically mined on a large scale, with some mines and quarries producing millions of tons per year. Most marble is made into either crushed stone or dimension stone. Crushed stone is used as an aggregate in highways,…

The transformation of limestone into marble usually occurs at convergent plate boundaries where large areas of Earth’s crust are exposed to the heat and pressure of regional metamorphism. Some marble also forms by contact metamorphism when a hot magma body heats adjacent limestone or dolostone. This process also occurs at convergent plate boundaries Before metamorphism, the calcite…

What is Marble? Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when limestone is subjected to the heat and pressure of metamorphism. It is composed primarily of the mineral calcite (CaCO3) and usually contains other minerals, such as clay minerals, micas, quartz, pyrite, iron oxides, and graphite. Under the conditions of metamorphism, the calcite in the limestone recrystallizes to form a rock that is a mass…