serpentine?

>Pat, you mentioned that sometimes other rocks are called marble,

such as serpentine. Isn't serpentine rather soft, like 2? I am
most familiar with Carrara marble as well as Indiana limestone,
which we never called marble (Hoosier, me). I found it
interesting that other rock was mis-identified as being marble by
the unknowledgeable.

Around here in California there is a lot of serpentine. People
seem to think it is compacted asbestos. Stopped BART
construction at least once as I remember - or maybe that was a
train roadbed going from San Fran to San Jose. The motherlode
area of California is full of Serpentine.

JerryK>

The only serpentine that I have ever worked with is Verde, a green stone
from Vermont used extensively in architecture. People frequently refer to
this stone as marble.This stone is not a 2 on mohs scale, but I don't know
what its hardness is. I know it is harder than marble and very brittle.
Serpentine is a geological classification and many stones qualify as
serpentine. I, however, am no geologist.
I must say, I have never heard anyone mistake INDIANA limestone for marble,
it is just very obviously different as you know. European limestone can be
brought to a polish and is more colorful than the Indiana variety - this
frequently causes confusion.