68 |
‘Marmo rosso di Taormina’; Taormina in Sicily is very doubtful. Possibly from the Apennines, Italy. |
Pink pelagic limestone, most probably from the Scaglia Rossa Formation (Cretaceous-Tertiary). A bioturbated fossiliferous biomicrite crowded with planktonic forams and calcispheres. |
6 |
‘Marmo Lesbio’, most probably Thasian marble, marmo Thaso, from Cape Vathy, Thasos (Thassos), East Macedonia an |
Coarse-grained calcite or dolomite marble. |
52 |
‘Marmo carnagione d'Asti’; probably from Italy, but Asti, in Piedmont, is very doubtful. |
Limestone from the Upper Cretaceous Scaglia Rossa Formation. A bioturbated biomicrite with planktonic forams and abundant tiny bioclasts. |
246 |
‘Lumachella di Lipari’; locality unknown. Not from the Lipari islands, Messina, Sicily, Italy. |
Fine-grained limestone crowded with largely spar-replaced bivalve shells and fragments. There are no igneous grains. |
334 |
very probably alabastro di Volterra, from Volterra, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy |
Banded compact travertine composed of very fine fibrous crystals of calcite embedding scattered fragments of a pure white travertine. |
870 |
Sandstone, from the Alps |
A quartz sandstone with abundant mafic mineral grains, scattered large forams and other shell fragments, and some calcareous grains/cement. |
711 |
Quartz 'rock crystal', from Madagascar |
Part of a large single crystal of rock crystal, the colourless variety of quartz. Some gas inclusions are evident along internal crystal planes. |
755 |
probably Sicilian jasper, diaspro di Sicilia, from Sicily, Italy |
Jasper - a silicified ferruginous limestone, with agate-filled voids and patches of creamy white crystalline calcite. Goethite forms spherular inclusions in orange jasper. |
789 |
probably porfido Trentino, from the Alps, and probably from the area of Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy |
Porphyritic rhyolite or dacite with phenocrysts of quartz, feldspar and biotite. |
247 |
probably Pietra Rosone di Trapani, from Trapani, Sicily, Italy |
Limestone. Calcareous algal 'reef' with benthic foraminifera and bryozoans. It has solution-modified clay seams/solution seams. |
73 |
probably marmo nero di Roverè, perhaps from Prun, but more likely Roverè di Velo, Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Bituminous bioclastic limestone. The sides of the specimen show it has a distinctly laminar texture. |
912 |
probably marmo Greco scritto, probably from Capo de Garde, Annaba (Hippo Regius), Algeria. |
A tectonised calcite marble, with fine and medium-grained graphite-rich bands; perhaps originally a marble breccia. |
493 |
Probably mandolato di Grezzana, nembro rosato; from Grezzana, Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Pelagic limestone. A burrowed nodular fossiliferous micritic limestone with stylolites and solution seams, most probably of Upper Jurassic age, from the upper part of the Rosso Ammonitico Formation. |
838 |
probably granito Sardo, from Capo Testa, Olbia-Tempio, Sardinia, Italy; but possibly granito rosso antico, from between Aswan and Shellal District, Nile Valley, Egypt |
A medium-grained granite with pink potash feldspar, biotite and quartz. |
876 |
probably granito nero, from between Aswan and Shellal District, Nile Valley, Egypt |
Amphibole-rich granodiorite-tonalite with megacrysts of plagioclase, and accessory titanite. There is some alignment of megacrysts giving faint foliation. |
902 |
Probably giallo antico from Chemtou, Tunisia, but possibly Giallo di Siena, Siena yellow from Monte Arrenti near Sovicille, Siena, Tuscany, Italy |
Very fine-grained calcite marble. A fractured, stylolitised, metamorphosed fossiliferous biomicrite limestone. Veins and voids are calcite-filled, and there are abundant small black manganese oxide dendrites. |
492 |
probably Gialletto di Torri del Benaco, from Torri del Benaco, Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Debris-flow deposit of limestone intraclasts in fossiliferous micritic matrix. Clay-coated stylolites are conspicuous. |
933 |
probably Egyptian alabaster, alabastro cotognino, from one of several quarries at Hatnub, Mallawi, and other locations in the Nile valley, Eastern desert, Egypt. |
Compact banded travertine composed of fairly coarse-grained calcite, extensively iron-stained and with red ferruginous veins. |
461 |
probably diaspro tenero di Sicilia, from Sicily, Italy; but may be breccia d'Arzo, from Ticino, Switzerland. |
Polymict limestone breccia with variable amounts of orange iron-staining of micritic matrix. |
416 |
Probably breccia di Sciro from Skyros, Sporades, Central Greece |
A nodular or conglomeratic limestone, sheared and metamorphosed to a marble breccia, with extensive clay-rich hematitic matrix and deformed calcite veins. Note extensive late-stage solution seamed stylolite development. |
446 |
probably breccia di Carrara, from Carrara, Massa e Carrara, Tuscany, Italy; or breccia di Seravezza, from Seravezza, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy |
Marble breccia: a limestone breccio-conglomerate that has subsequently been metamorphosed. |
909 |
probably Africano, from Sigacik (ancient Teos), Izmir Province, Turkey |
Sheared, recrystallised limestone breccia with some relic crinoid debris and abundant stylolites. |
829 |
possibly granito nero, from between Aswan and Shellal District, Nile Valley, Egypt |
Biotite granodiorite with some alteration to chlorite; possibly a variety of the Aswan granodiorite from the Precambrian basement rocks. |
894 |
Possibly granito di Corsica from Corsica, France, but more probably bianco Montorfano, from Montorfano, Novara, Piedmont, Italy |
Coarse hornblende biotite granite with accessory apatite and titanite. |
472 |
perhaps Chiampo, from Ponte Salaro, near Rome is doubtful; this is more likely to be from the area of Chiampo, in Vicenza. |
Limestone; a foraminiferal ruddite with abundant nummulites and other benthic forams, algal grains, mollusc fragments and limestone intraclasts. It has extensive solution of grain boundaries, creamy micritic cement containing microfossils. Extensive use has been made of an orange filler. |
98 |
Perhaps Campan vert from Espiadet, Campan valley, Haute Pyrénées, France, but it may be cipollino Apuano from Alta Versilia, Tuscany, Italy; or another cipollino |
Impure altered limestone or calcite marble with convoluted white calcite ‘veins’; sheared, with anastomising cream-coloured shear bands. The green coloration is predominantly green-grey granular to prismatic diopside/actinolite. |
910 |
perhaps breccia corallina, from Verzirhan, Bilecik,Turkey |
Heavily sheared and recrystallised limestone breccia, almost entirely altered to fine-grained marble. |
91 |
perhaps bardiglio, from Carrara, Massa e Carrara, Tuscany, Italy; or cipollino, from Carystos, Euboea, Central Greece |
Fine-grained carbonate mylonite, a heavily sheared carbonate rock. The slab face is cut parallel to the dextral movement direction. |
834 |
perhaps africano, from Locality unknown; if africano, then from Sigacik (ancient Teos), Izmir Province, Turkey |
A metamorphosed breccia of dark dolomitic? limestone containing bioclasts such as forams, echinoderm spines and perhaps crinoid ossicles. There are also scattered pyrite crystals and some reddish intraclasts. The matrix is coarsely crystalline pink calcite. There is some chlorite development around clasts. Note the iron-stained calcite-filled fracture. |
706 |
Orthoclase 'adularia', from the Alps; probably from St Gotthard, Ticino, Switzerland |
Adularia, a variety of orthoclase feldspar. |
7 |
most probably Thasian marble, marmo Thaso, from Cape Vathy, Thasos (Thassos), East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece |
Medium-grained dolomite marble. |
3 |
most probably Pentelic marble, marmo Pentelico, from Mt Pentéli, Attica, Greece |
Fine-grained calcite marble. |
796 |
most probably Lapis Iaracites, porfido verde Egiziano, from Gebel Dokhan, Eastern Desert, Egypt |
Andesite-dacite porphyry of white plagioclase phenocrysts in a grey-black groundmass. Very minor epidotisation of the plagioclase. |
814 |
most probably granito nero, from between Aswan and Shellal District, Nile Valley, Egypt |
Biotite granodiorite; probably a variety of the Aswan granodiorite from the Precambrian basement rocks. |
131 |
most probably giallo e nero di Carrara, from Carrara, Massa e Carrara, Tuscany, Italy |
Black weakly metamorphosed fine-grained limestone with at least two generations of veining the first of white calcite and the second of yellow calcite coloured by goethite (iron hydroxide). |
132 |
most probably giallo e nero di Carrara, from Carrara, Massa e Carrara, Tuscany, Italy |
Finely brecciated weakly metamorphosed fine-grained limestone with veins of saccharoidal to fibrous calcite; some veins and stylolites coloured yellow by included goethite. |
136 |
most probably giallo e nero di Carrara, from Carrara, Massa e Carrara, Tuscany, Italy |
Very poorly sorted breccia of black fine-grained weakly metamorphosed limestone in a white calcareous matrix; most of the stone is one larger clast which is crossed with white and ferruginous yellow veins. Note the yellow stylolites and stylolitic clast boundary. |
233 |
Most probably Chiampo, from Vicenza or Venezia, Veneto, Italy |
Fossiliferous microsparite limestone with bivalves and abundant large and small benthic foraminifera. It has limestone intraclasts, calcite-filled veins, and stylolites coloured by red filler or polishing compound. |
975 |
most probably breccia Medici di Siena, from Siena, Tuscany, Italy |
Fine-grained calcite marble breccia; a sheared and metamorphosed limestone breccia. |
830 |
just possibly granito nero, from between Aswan and Shellal District, Nile Valley, Egypt |
Fine-grained hornblende biotite granodiorite; just possibly a variety of the Aswan granodiorite from the Precambrian basement rocks. |
551 |
Fluorite, probably from Italy |
Banded colourless fluorite with inclusions of pyrite, and ?clay. |
542 |
Fluorite, from Crich, Derbyshire, England |
Hydrothermal vein deposit of colourless/iron-stained fluorite, in places showing zoning with inclusions of pyrite/marcasite. It also contains sparse euhedral crystals of sphalerite. |
919 |
almost certainly Vytina black, from Vytina, Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece |
Fine-grained black limestone with white fragments of rudist bivalves; Cretaceous age. |
920 |
almost certainly Vytina black, from Vytina, Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece |
Fine-grained black limestone with white shells of rudist bivalves; Cretaceous age. |
604 |
almost certainly verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised coarse peridotite with very dark olivine domains. Note the reticulated distribution of Fe/Cr oxides, and presence of some pale acicular inclusions. |
368 |
almost certainly Travertino di Civitavecchia, from Civitavecchia, Lazio, Italy |
Calcite travertine deposit, with algal(probably cyanobacterial) laminites. Coloured bands are tinted by hematite (red) and goethite (yellow). |
742 |
almost certainly quarzo di Monterufoli, from Monterufoli, near Pomarance, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy |
Brecciated banded crystalline slightly smoky-amethystine quartz with some included euhedral black crystals, and aligned white 'feathers' of bubble inclusions. The reddish-brown bands are artificial filler in fracture cavities. |
4 |
almost certainly Proconnesian marble, marmo di Proconneso, from the island of Marmara, Balıkesir, Turkey |
Coarse-grained calcite marble with grey graphite-bearing banding. |
968 |
almost certainly breccia del Taigeto, breccia verde di Sparta, from the area of Krokees (Levetsova), Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece |
Synsedimentary breccio-conglomerate with clasts of porphyritic andesite. |
291 |
A hybrid of mischio scuro di Lugo/lumachella di San Vitale and astracane di Verona, from Lugo di Grezzana, Val Pantena, Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Limestone; a fossiliferous micrite parts of the specimen rich in bivalve fragments, and other parts containing elongate spar-filled sections of the the lower Jurassic 'Lithiotis' bivalve. It is crossed by a thick calcite-filled vein. |
252 |
Verdesino della Giazza, from Giazza, Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Fine-grained bioturbated limestone crowded with bioclasts, mostly thin-shelled bivalves. |
582 |
Verde tenero di Corsica, from Corsica, France |
Fine-grained quartz (chalcedony) rock, perhaps with relic textures of a granitic rock. Dendritic goethite emanates from the many fractures. |
578 |
Verde ranocchia, from Wadi Umm Esh, Eastern Desert, Egypt |
Serpentinite; a metamorphosed gabbro; most probably the Wadi Umm Esh/Atalla serpentinite. |
577 |
Verde ragano dell'Elba, from the island of Elba, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised peridotite with clear dextral shear fabric and augen up to a centimetre across. |
702 |
Verde plasma di Corsica, from near Orezza, Monte San Petrone, Haute-Corse, Corsica, France |
Metagabbro, the diopside and actinolite-tremolite both coloured bright green by trace chromium. |
611 |
Verde duro di Massa e Carrara, most probably from the Apuan Alps of Italy |
Coarse-grained diorite. |
579 |
Verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised peridotite (lherzolite) - coarse-grained, former olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene are still evident. |
580 |
Verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised peridotite with coarse original texture, and fine detail in the serpentinisation (low temperature alteration) preserved. Vein is quartz. |
581 |
Verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinisied peridotite with pyroxenitic vein or band. |
589 |
Verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised coarse peridotite, and clear milky and fibrous serpentine veins. Various microstructures of alteration and exsolution in pyroxene visible on the slab surface. Note opaque white ?quartz veins and a few small calcite veins. |
590 |
Verde di Prato, from Prato, Florence, Tuscany, Italy |
Serpentinised peridotite (lherzolite) - coarse-grained, former olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene are still evident. |
700 |
Verde di Corsica, smaragdite, from near Orezza, Monte San Petrone, Haute-Corse, Corsica, France |
Metagabbro, the diopside and actinolite-tremolite both coloured bright green by trace chromium. |
701 |
Verde di Corsica mandolato, from near Orezza, Monte San Petrone, Haute-Corse, Corsica, France |
Sheared metagabbro, the diopside and actinolite-tremolite both coloured bright green by trace chromium. |
211 |
Verde di Bagnaia, from Bagnaia, island of Elba, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy; or perhaps ribbon jasper from the Ural Mountains, Russia. |
Siliceous rock featuring abundant green reduction spots; it may possibly be a metamorphosed burrowed mudstone. The specimen is coated with beeswax. |
565 |
Verde antico, from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece |
A breccia of serpentinite, schistose calc-silicate and crystalline marble clasts in a lime-green serpentinite matrix. |
566 |
Verde antico, from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece |
Breccia with clasts mainly of serpentinite/ophicalcite, a few of marble; extensive scattered crystals of oxide minerals, in a serpentine and calcite matrix. Heavily fractured, many fractures are filled with cross-fibres of chrysotile serpentine. |
962 |
Verde antico, from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece |
Breccia with clasts mainly of serpentinite/ophicalcite, and a few of marble. |
14 |
Travertino di Tivoli, travertino Romano, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Porous banded travertine deposit, specimen cut parallel with the bedding. |
251 |
Travertino di Monte Catini, from Montecatini Terme, Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy |
Limestone, brown ferruginous in places, composed of brecciated travertine, algal fragments and other bioclasts. Cavities are mostly filled with sparry calcite. |
5 |
Thasian marble, marmo Thaso, most probably from Cape Vathy, Thasos (Thassos), East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece |
Coarse-grained dolomite marble. |
942 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Rome, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
377 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, alabastro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
378 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, alabastro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
379 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, alabastro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
380 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, alabastro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
381 |
Tartaro di Tivoli, alabastro di Tivoli, from Tivoli, Lazio, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
382 |
Tartaro di Terni, alabastro di Terni, from Terni, Umbria, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
383 |
Tartaro di Terni, alabastro di Terni, from Terni, Umbria, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
384 |
Tartaro di Terni, alabastro di Terni, from Terni, Umbria, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
385 |
Tartaro di Terni, alabastro di Terni, from Terni, Umbria, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
386 |
Tartaro di Terni, alabastro di Terni, from Terni, Umbria, Italy |
Compact banded travertine composed of fibrous to very finely acicular calcite crystals, perhaps originally aragonite. |
795 |
Swedish porphyry, from Älvdalen, Dalarna, Sweden |
Lamprophyre (minette group). Poikilocrysts of brown (?kaersutitic) amphibole up to 25mm enclosing subhedral crystals of pyroxene, feldspar and opaque mineral. Groundmass contains carbonate and possible feldspathoid. |
227 |
Stellaria, locality unknown; not from Egypt |
Coral limestone. A recrystallised colonial scleractinian (= hexacoral) coral, of Mesozoic or more recent age. |
282 |
Stellaria rossa di Verona, from Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Recrystallised colonial scleractinian coral with spar-filled voids. Interstices between coralites are filled with yellow bioclastic limestone. |
280 |
Stellaria bianca di Verona, from Verona, Veneto, Italy |
Fossil wood with borings of the shipworms (teredinid bivalves), borings filled with white fossiliferous micritic limestone or spar. Alveoliria forams are present in sediment fills. |
8 |
Statuary marble, marmo statuario, most probably from Carrara, Seravezza or elsewhere in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, Italy; but could also be from Mt Pentéli, Attica, Greece |
Fine-grained calcite marble |
11 |
Statuary marble, marmo statuario, almost certainly statuario di Monte Altissimo, from Monte Altissimo, north of Seravezza, Lucca, Tuscany, Italy |
Fine-grained calcite marble |
390 |
Spanish broccatello, from Tortosa, Tarragona, Spain |
Burrowed fossiliferous limestone with large bivalves.The original calcitic shell layers are preserved in some places, elsewhere, sparry calcite infills voids left by desolution of aragonite shells. |
391 |
Spanish broccatello, from Tortosa, Tarragona, Spain |
Burrowed fossiliferous limestone with large bivalves.The original calcitic shell layers are preserved in some places, elsewhere, sparry calcite infills voids left by desolution of aragonite shells. |
392 |
Spanish broccatello, from Tortosa, Tarragona, Spain |
Burrowed fossiliferous limestone with large bivalves.The original calcitic shell layers are preserved in some places, elsewhere, sparry calcite infills voids left by desolution of aragonite shells. |
393 |
Spanish broccatello, from Tortosa, Tarragona, Spain |
Burrowed fossiliferous limestone with large bivalves.The original calcitic shell layers are preserved in some places, elsewhere, sparry calcite infills voids left by desolution of aragonite shells. |
770 |
Sicilian jasper, probably diaspro di Troina, from Troina, Enna, Sicily, Italy |
Radiolarian chert coloured by included limonite mainly concentrated between radiolaria tests. The few thin fractures are agate-banded. |
768 |
Sicilian jasper, probably diaspro di Collesano, probably from Collesano, Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
Yellow-brown jasper with cavities and fractures infilled with chalcedony which is agate-banded in places, or with colourless crystalline quartz. Some dendrites of manganese/iron oxides are evident. |
745 |
Sicilian jasper, most probably diaspro di Giuliana, from Sicily, Italy, and most probably from Giuliana, Palermo. |
Brecciated red jasper with rims of opaque white chalcedony. Colourless crystalline quartz matrix is iron-stained and vughy away from clasts. Clasts have colourless quartz-filled fractures. |
746 |
Sicilian jasper, from Sicily, Italy |
Brecciated jasper; part red with colourless agate/crystalline quartz matrix, part yellow-brown with colourless crystalline quartz matrix. Later fractures are also filled with colourless quartz. |
747 |
Sicilian jasper, from Sicily, Italy |
Brecciated yellow jasper, heavily fractured, with chalcedony/agate-filled fractures and cement. Orange red 'veins' are artificial filler in open fractures. |
734 |
Sicilian jasper, diaspro-agata di Selinunte, from Selinunte, near Marinella, Trapani, Sicily, Italy |
Yellow brecciated jasper with chalcedony matrix, faintly agate banded in places with few translucent red/yellow bands. Note crystalline quartz-filled fractures contain layers of ?muscovite crystals. |
732 |
Sicilian jasper, diaspro-agata di Monreale, from Monreale, Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
Brecciated brown jasper with matrix and fracture fills of colourless crystalline quartz. |
739 |
Sicilian jasper, diaspro-agata di Milazzo, from Milazzo, Messina, Sicily, Italy |
Brecciated jasper; matrix forms faint agate halos around clasts, elsewhere it is colourless quartz. Single crystals may enclose many small clasts or fill a whole fracture. |
731 |
Sicilian jasper, diaspro-agata di Giuliana, from Giuliana, Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
Brecciated brown jasper; agate matrix is patchy with hematitic inclusions in some bands; crystalline quartz fills voids. Buff-coloured areas are filler. |