Limestone Marble Hardness

Caches of limestone from different locations can possess different hardness scores.

Limestone marble hardness.

The softest countertop options on the mohs scale are limestone 3 and. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. You will have to be very careful not to scratch these surfaces albeit they are not the softest options on the scale. When it comes to classifying a natural stone granite before making a purchase stone buyers like to focus on the relative granite hardness to know how hard a stone is in comparison with other natural stone products like marble sandstone slate limestone and quartzite.

Mohs hardness between 3 to 5 f 8 14 belong to the medium hard stone such as marble. Bell reported in the bulletin of engineering geology and the environment that carboniferous limestone consistently rated as harder and stronger than magnesian limestone inferior oolitic limestone and great oolitic limestone. Falling down on the scale a little more are popular countertop options marble travertine and slate. Marble is limestone that has been compacted and heated over millions of years.

As a result marble is less porous and slightly stronger than limestone but still less durable than granite. Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when limestone is subjected to the heat and pressure of metamorphism. 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. The granite hardness helps buyers make a balanced decision.

Because granite is between a 6 and 7 on the mohs scale it would be able to scratch other types of stone that have lower ratings such as marble. Limestone generally ranks at around a 3 on the scale while marble falls between 3 and 4. Mohs hardness in 1 2 f 2 6 are soft stone such as limestone and dolomite etc. Depending on the limestone and the mineral combination within the marble most marble rates from three to five on the mohs hardness scale.

This method of hardness judgement is based on the ability of one sample of matter to scratch another. The mohs scale of hardness was created in 1812 by german geologist mineralogist friedrich mohs. 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. The hardness of stone is measured by mohs hardness as a unit of calculation mohs hardness in the 6 7 f 14 20 are hard stone such as quartzite and granite.

Each of these stones ranks at a 4 on the scale. Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals most commonly calcite or dolomite marble is typically not foliated although there are exceptions in geology the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone.