There are rocks that are good building materials. But in order to understand how suitable they will be, you need to find out what kind of breed it is. And some of them can be determined only in laboratories, and some in domestic or field conditions.
Necessary
- - graph paper;
- - magnifier;
- - knife;
- - geological hammer.
Instructions
Step 1
So that you can determine without special equipment what kind of rock is in front of you, study at least the basic characteristics of different materials.
Step 2
Take the rock and hit it with a geological hammer. If it turns out to be loose and from large debris, measure the size of the debris on graph paper, look at their shape. Crushed stone is angular, while gravel and pebbles are rounded.
Step 3
If the fragments are small, sprinkle them in a thin layer on graph paper and examine the size of individual grains under a magnifying glass. The formation of loose rocks occurs as a result of the destruction of dense rocks, in this regard, fragments in them can be from shale, limestone, granite.
Step 4
You can determine the rock by its occurrence: solid mass, in layers, or it comes out in the form of veins. The beds are mainly sedimentary rocks, otherwise metamorphic. Massive bedding is more typical for igneous rocks. They are often fractured into polygonal and rectangular fragments. But the veins can contain a variety of rocks.
Step 5
But it is best to draw a conclusion on a fresh fracture of the breed. To do this, beat off a piece of rock from a rock with a hammer or break a piece and examine the surface under a magnifying glass. If it is earthy, most likely it is clay, granular can be sandstones and granites. If the surface is glassy, you may have obsidian in your hands.
Step 6
To determine the breed by its hardness, scratch the piece with a knife or fingernail. Hard minerals will never be scraped or cut with a knife. The composition of the sedimentary rocks includes less stable minerals than igneous or metamorphic ones.
Step 7
Look at the colors of the material that interests you. Hornblende and biotite are mostly dark in color, but quartz and feldspars are lighter in color. White mica is muscovite and calcite.
