Wednesday, May 14, 2014

What type of rock is this, is it a limestone?


The rock material in the bottom layer is light colored â€Â" not exactly white but more buff or beige. You can’t discern any specific minerals or grains. It’s fairly hard, but you can break it off pretty easily with the hammer so it isn’t extremely hard. The edges of the broken rock are fairly sharp and solid, but you can readily break off the sharp corners by hitting it against the rock face. You can’t rub or scrape off any particles with your hand or fingernail, and it doesn’t feel sandy or gritty, but fairly smooth. You are able to scrape it with your metal hammer, and you find that it does not scratch the glass on your watch face. You look at your rock sample from all sides, but don’t notice any differences no matter which way it is turned. It is basically a solid buff or beige colored rock, with no visible crystals, no fossils, no other distinctive features, and it doesn’t seem to have a preference where it breaks â€Â" it’s chunky, not flat. When you look at it through the handy magnifying lens you wear on a necklace, it looks like there may be tiny crystals, but they are too fine-grained to be seen with the naked eye. You test the rock with the acid from the bottle in your other pocket, and it fizzes.

Based on the above description would the rock be limestone that is being described here?

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