marble

marble

1. 

a. a hard crystalline metamorphic rock resulting from the recrystallization of a limestone: takes a high polish and is used for building and sculpture

b. (as modifier): a marble bust

2. a block or work of art of marble

3. a small round glass or stone ball used in playing marbles

4. white like some kinds of marble

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

marble

Metamorphic rock made up largely of calcite or dolomite; capable of taking a high polish, and used especially in architecture and sculpture; numerous minerals account for its distinctive appearance.

See also: Stone

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

marble

[′mär·bəl]

(petrology)

Metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized calcite or dolomite.

Commercially, any limestone or dolomite taking polish.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

marble

A metamorphic rock composed largely of calcite or dolomite; often highly polished to enhance its appearance; available in different colors that result from differences in mineral content.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Marble

 

a crystalline rock formed as a result of the recrystallization of limestone or dolomite. The term “marble” is applied commercially to any metamorphic rock of medium hardness that can be polished; this category of rock includes marble, marmorized limestone, dense dolomite, ophicalcite, calcareous breccia, and calcareous conglomerates. Marble almost always contains impurities of other minerals (quartz, chalcedony, hematite, pyrite, limonite, chlorite), as well as organic compounds. The impurities have a varying effect on the quality of the marble, increasing or decreasing its decorativeness.

Marble has a specific gravity of 2.65–2.90 and a compressive strength ranging from 50 to 250 meganewtons per square meter (500–2, 500 kilograms-force per square meter). The abradability is from 0.40 to 3.20 g/cm², and the water absorption is from 0.15 to 0.50 percent. Finely crystalline marble with dentate bounding of the grains is the most durable and takes the best polish. Structurally uniform marbles are frost resistant.

The color of the marble depends on the impurities. The majority of colored marbles have mottled coloration; the pattern is determined not only by the structure of the marble but also by the direction along which the rock is cut. The color and pattern of the marble appear after polishing. To determine the industrial value of marble deposits, the proximity of transport facilities and the thickness of the overlying stratum of weathered marble (the maximum is usually 5–8 m) are taken into consideration.

Marble is quarried and, less frequently, mined. To obtain monolithic blocks, stonecutting machines and cable saws are used, as are wedges in bored holes and percussive cutters.

Marble has been used since antiquity in architecture as a structural element and as facing owing to its plastic and decorative properties (hardness, fine grain). Marble’s fine grain makes the rock easy to work with and capable of being polished. Polishing reveals the tonal richness of marble and the beauty of its uniform, patchy, or laminated structure. Marble has been used for making mosaics (the incrustation style and Florentine mosaics), reliefs, and freestanding sculptures (primarily carved from marble of a single color—usually white). The relative transparency of the rock results in the delicate play of light and shadow on the surface of marble scupltures.

In the USSR there are as many as 60 known deposits of marble and marmorized limestone (in Karelia, the Ukraine, the Urals, Transcaucasia, Middle Asia, Siberia, and the Far East). The marble reserves in the USSR are virtually inexhaustible. The best grades of white marble from Soviet deposits are used for sculpturing. Marble deposits in Italy include those in Carrara, which yield the finest marble for sculpturing; this marble is white, brilliant, and easy to polish. The Paros quarry in Greece yields the yellowish marble that was used by ancient Greek sculptors. Other countries with marble deposits include Cuba, France, Norway, and the United States.

REFERENCES

Metrofanov, G. K. , and I. A. Shpanov. Oblitsovochnye i podelochnye kamni SSSR. Moscow, 1970.
Herbeck, A. Der Marmor. Berlin, 1953.

M. A. LIPSON

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.