Ruin marble is a kind of limestone or marble that contains light and dark patterns, giving the impression of a ruined cityscape. The patterns (similar to Liesegang rings) develop during diagenesis due to periodic rhythmic precipitation of iron hydroxides from oxidizing aqueous fluids restricted laterally by calcite filled joints.
Famous quotes containing the words ruin and/or marble:
“A tempest cracked on the theatre. Quickly,
The wind beat in the roof and half the walls.
The ruin stood still in an external world.
It had been real. It was something overseas
That I remembered, something that I remembered
Overseas, that stood in an external world.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“In marble halls as white as milk,
Lined with a skin as soft as silk,
Within a fountain crystal-clear,
A golden apple doth appear.
No doors there are to this stronghold,
Yet thieves break in and steal the gold.”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. In marble walls as white as milk (Riddle: An Egg)