Marble Foliated Metamorphic Rock

Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock types in a process called metamorphism which means change in form.

Marble foliated metamorphic rock.

Most people are surprised to learn that so. The specimen shown above is about two inches five centimeters across. It is composed primarily of calcium carbonate. Non foliated metamorphic rocks are rocks that have been changed by heat and pressure into rocks with a non layered or banded appearance.

Soapstone was used by the american indians for tools and implements and is found in. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when limestone is subjected to the heat and pressure of metamorphism. Non foliated metamorphic rocks.

Lapis lazuli the famous blue gem material is actually a metamorphic rock. Not all parent rocks have platy or elongated minerals and when these rocks undergo metamorphism the individual mineral grains do not align. The pressure applied to the reforming rock causes the differences in the way the rock looks once recrystallized and determines whether it will be foliated or nonfoliated. Types of non foliated metamorphic rocks include marble quartzite and hornfels.

The major differences between foliated and nonfoliated metamorphic rocks are in the areas of texture appearance and the type of pressure applied during recrystallization. It is composed primarily of the mineral calcite caco 3 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. If only looking at rock samples in a laboratory one can be sure of the type of metamorphism that produced a foliated metamorphic rock such as schist or gneiss or a hornfels which is unfoliated but one cannot be sure of the type of metamorphism that produced an unfoliated marble or quartzite. The original rock is subjected to heat temperatures greater than 150 to 200 c and pressure 100 megapascals 1 000 bar or more causing profound physical or chemical change the protolith may be a sedimentary igneous or existing metamorphic rock.