Holston Formation

The Holston Formation, alternately known as the Holston Limestone, is a stratigraphic unit of Ordovician age within the Chickamauga Group in the Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province of the southeastern United States. A convert|120|mi|km|adj=on long outcrop belt of the Holston in East Tennessee is the source of the decorative building stone known as Tennessee marble.

Near Knoxville the Holston Formation is about convert|400|ft|m thick but it thins toward the southwest; near Cleveland, Tennessee it is only 200 feet thick. The rock that is quarried for marble is a highly pure (97% CaCO₃) crystalline limestone, pink to cedar-red in color.

Among the notable buildings where Tennessee marble is used as a building stone are two in Washington, D.C.: the National Gallery of Art, which uses stone from Knox and Blount counties, and the United States Capitol, which has stairways constructed from Hawkins County marble. [" [http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/stones/descriptions.html Descriptions and Origins of Selected Principal Building Stones of Washington] ", U.S. Geological Survey, revised 1-14-99, accessed December 23, 2007.]

References

General

* [http://www.cagenweb.com/quarries/articles_and_books/min_res_appalachian_region/mineral_commodities_5.html Mineral Commodities] , in "Mineral Resources of the Appalachian Region", U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Bureau of Mines, Geological Survey Professional Paper 580, 1968.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/26/knoxvilles-marble-past/ Knoxville's marble past] , "Knoxville News Sentinel", August 26, 2008 (article and videos)