Portugal - marble ECOS, Frome, Somerset
European Community Of Stone

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Rosa Aurora (Dawn Pink) marble

About the rock: This is a 12 tonne block of Rosa Aurora marble. This rock is a high grade metamorphosed limestone and gives a full appreciation of the characters of a true marble. The blush pink surface colour is flecked with small red crystals which are evidence of the recrystallisation of the original limestone. Flat surfaces show slickenside grooving which demonstrate compressive stresses. These features are signs of the metamorphism which this Cretaceous limestone has undergone as the Spanish-Portuguese outcrops were folded and intruded by granite bodies as the regional expression of Alpine folding in the Miocene. There are faint grey veins running through the rock, and when wetted, the slightly blurred outline of calcite crystals make up a typical marble texture. Place of origin: Portugal is well-known for its marbles from the district known as Estremoz, east of Lisbon and fairly close to the Spanish border. Quarries are concentrated in a triangle between Borba, Evora and Villa Vicosa producing mainly the distinctive pale pink marble Rosa Aurora (Dawn Pink).