Why Are Only A Few Fossils Found In Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock formed when limestone is subjected to high pressure or heat.

Why are only a few fossils found in marble.

However special circumstances do happen. The heat and pressure required to change or metamorphose rocks usually destroys any fossils. It also occurs without forming foliation which normally is found in rocks that are altered by the directed pressure of a convergent plate boundary. In its pure form marble is a white stone with a crystalline and sugary appearance consisting of calcium carbonate caco 3 usually marble contains other minerals including quartz graphite pyrite and iron oxides these minerals can give marble a pink brown gray green or variegated coloration.

Recrystallization obscures the original fossils and sedimentary structures of the limestone. Fossils rarely occur in metamorphic or igneous rocks. The criteria of fossil dating is based on biostratigraphy i e. Fossils are some living things remains which lived long time ago and are extinct now.

For example fossilized shells and bacteria have been found in marble which is metamorphosed limestone. Traces of fossils are sometimes found in metamorphic rocks deriving from metamorphic processes of low intensity on sedimentary rocks. But small fossil fusulina is easy to see in the marble around you. Recrystallization is what marks the separation between limestone and marble.

These are bones shells and marks in the stones. Fossil in marble fossil in marble experiment level elementary introduction.