Marble

This page is about the metamorphic rock. For the game with little glass spheres - see marbles.

Kinds of marble

Some historically important kinds of marble, named after the locations of their quarries, include:

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• Paros (Greece)
• Penteli (Greece)
• Carrara (Italy)
• Proconnesus (Turkey)
• Macael (Spain)

White marbles, like Carrara, have been prized for sculpture since classical times. This preference has to do with the softness and relative isotropy and homogeneity, and a relative resistance to shattering. Also, the low index of refraction of calcite allows light to penetrate several millimeters into the stone before being scattered out, resulting in the characteristic "waxy" look which gives "life" to marble sculptures of the human body.

Related Topics:
Sculpture - Isotropy - Calcite

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