Is Limestone Or Marble Harder

Marble basically classifies into four groups which include.

Is limestone or marble harder.

Marble is relatively hard but not as hard as granite. 5 limestone is more porous than marble while marble is harder than limestone. We can see from this government report that both limestone and marble are affected by the problem of acid rain. Fired clay tends to be quite hard and depending on the formula might be harder than limestone.

4 heat and pressure causes the formation of marble while they are not necessary for the formation of limestone. From greek statues to roman baths it has been used for centuries in just about every possible interior and exterior application. Limestone generally ranks at around a 3 on the scale while marble falls between 3 and 4. Marble is often used as a building material and in sculptures.

While marble is slightly harder and denser than limestone both rate very low on the mohs scale a rating used to measure the hardness of stones. Most people are familiar with marble. For instance quartzite is a harder material than marble making it less prone to wear regarding staining and scratching. Both limestone and marble tend to react with acidic substances by forming a gray or black crust of gypsum crystals.

This doesn t mean that you can t use marble for kitchen countertops but is a factor to consider when selecting your natural stone. 3 limestone is a sedimentary rock while marble is a metamorphic rock. Minerals do have defined hardnesses though. Rocks don t technically have any concrete mohs hardness as they are mixtures of minerals.

It goes granite marble limestone and it comes down to simple minerals. Marble and limestone lie at the opposite end of the hardness scale from granite. Limestone on the other hand is basically just a huge pile of non interlocked but cemented calcite caco3 which is the definition of a mohs 3. Even though it is harder than limestone it is not as hard as granite.

It features many colors due to the mineral impurities in limestone but those used in sculptures are typically white. Granites have large amounts of quartz sio2 and other hard silicate materials quartz 7 mohs. This may be important for areas like kitchen countertops where there is high traffic. Marble is a very hard stone.

Limestone is a soft easily workable rock that is comprised of at least 50 calcite aragonite and or dolomite. Limestone is softer than marble but harder than chalk.