Soapstone
Rock made of talc
Common
A talc schist, soft enough to carve and soapy to the touch, that stores and gives back heat. Viking Age Norway cooked in soapstone pots; India carved temple sculpture in it.
Rock
- Kind of rock
- Metamorphic rock
- Rock family
- Ultramafic rock (peridotite, serpentinite)
- Also contains
- Chlorite, Tremolite, Magnesite
- How it forms
- Heat, pressure and incoming fluids change rock without melting it, in subduction zones (metasomatism).
- Uses
- Carving, cooking pots, stove linings and masonry heaters, electrical insulators.
Identity
- Also known as
- Steatite, Soaprock
Crystallography
- Habits
- Massive
Physical properties
- Luster
- Waxy, Pearly
- Colors
- gray, green, white, blue-gray
- Transparency
- Opaque
Geology
- Origins
- Metamorphic
- Geography
- India, Brazil (Minas Gerais), Norway, USA (Virginia, Vermont), Canada
Classification
- Rarity
- Common
- Gem quality
- No
Sources
- Soapstone. Wikipedia.
- S. Robertson, BGS Rock Classification Scheme, Volume 2: Classification of metamorphic rocks (Research Report RR 99-02). British Geological Survey, 1999.
Browse the Crystal Encyclopedia — MGS Toolbox