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:
“If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and completions of his own comfort,—who would not so much as part with his ice- cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think I must not hesitate to satisfy that man that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper by placing the negro nation on a fair footing than by robbing them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“where the Statue stood
Of Newton, with his Prism and silent Face
The marble index of a Mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)