What distinguishing property would you use to identify limestone from other sedi

Question

What distinguishing property would you use to identify limestone from other sedimentary rocks? Look at your samples of crystalline limestone (a sedimentary rock) and marble (a metamorphic rock). Explain how you would differentiate between the two samples if you found them in nature. (Color is not a good indicator of rock type and is not an appropriate answer.) Based on your observations from lab, describe, in your own words, what a foliated texture is. What rock types are foliated, and where might foliated rocks form in nature?

Explanation / Answer

5. Limestones (the detrital types) are made of biogenic grains rather than weathered bits and pieces of preexisting rocks as opposed to other sedimentary rocks.

6. Limestone is more porous than marble, because there are small openings between the fossil fragments. Marble is usually light colored and is composed of crystals of calcite locked together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Marble may contain colored streaks that are inclusions of non-calcite minerals.

7. Foliated textures refers to repetitive layering (sheet-like layering) in metamorphic rocks. Foliation is common in rocks affected by the regional metamorphic compression typical of areas of mountain belt formation (orogenic belts).

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