Texas Rock Identification Marble

Picture identification guide for polished stones and tumbled rocks.

Texas rock identification marble.

In the rock identification charts on pages 40 41 the texas rocks described in this book are arranged in four major groups according to their texture. The visible crystals in marble give it a characteristic granular surface and appearance but there are other properties used to identify the rock. Rock and gem hunting in texas and beyond. Photographs and information for a large collection of igneous metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.

Zebra marble is a black and white material that has a coloration similar to a zebra. Rock gypsum is a fine grained translucent to opaque stone of ten found in layers along the canyons of the texas high plains. 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. This stone is brown in color with light orange and blue spots.

Identifying how the marble was made will tell you the most about its history and whether it has any value. Llanite is a rock found in texas and a few other locations that contains tiny euhedral well formed crystals of blue quartz in a groundmass of pink and brown feldspar. Also see numbers 17 18 and 30. Sometimes it can be nearly impossible to positively id a particular marble but there are ways you can narrow the possibilities.

Marble tends to be light in color. It is a dolomitic. Coiled gypsum on cinnabar. Glassy the rocks are smooth dark and shiny 2.

Marble is considered to be a strong hard stone even though its primary mineral calcite only has a mohs hardnessof 3. Gypsum is a soft common mineral. Blue topaz plume agate in rainbow colors graphic granite cinnabar petrified palm wood tektites and the astonishing number of superb fossils are the collectors most search. Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when limestone is subjected to the heat and pressure of metamorphism.

Texas diverse geography is being visited by most collectors of rocks and minerals. Earls notes on the following information teri smith runs rock hunts for agates and other beautiful rocks of the big bend area from her rock shop in the antelope lodge in alpine tx 2310 hwy 90 alpine tx her home phone is 432 837 1026 or 432 837 2451. Texas plume agate is found in colors from black through a virtual rainbow of other colors. How to use the rock identification charts.

Marble can be scratched with a metal blade.