List of types of limestone

This article lists types of limestone arranged according to generic type and location.

Portland Admiralty Roach from a quarry face on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England.

Generic limestone categories

Coquina from Florida.

This section is a list of generic types of limestone.

• Bituminous limestone
• Carboniferous Limestone – Limestone deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period
• Coquina – Sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of fragments of shells
• Coral rag – Limestone composed of ancient coral reef material
• Chalk – Soft carbonate rock
• Fossiliferous limestone – Limestone containing fossils
• Lithographic limestone – Type of limestone with hard fine grain
• Marble – Metamorphic limestone
• Oolite – Sedimentary rock formed from ooids
• Rag-stone – Work done with stones that are quarried in thin pieces
• Shelly limestone – Limestone containing many fossils
• Travertine – Form of limestone deposited by mineral springs
• Tufa – Porous limestone rock formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water

The following sections include both formal stratigraphic unit names and less formal designations, although are these are not differentiated.

Africa

Egypt

Further information: Stone quarries of ancient Egypt

• Tura limestone, used for the Great Pyramid casing stones
• Mokattam limestone; Great Pyramid core stones and head of the Great Sphinx are of the "Member III" stratum
• Galala marble (a type of limestone, not a true marble)

Asia

Meleke in the Gerofit Formation (Turonian) near Makhtesh Ramon, southern Israel.

India

• Kota stone – Type of limestone from Rajasthan, India
• Nimbahera stone

Israel (West Bank)

• Meleke – Type of Limestone
• Jerusalem stone – Type of pale building stone

Europe

Portland Stone quarry on the Isle of Portland, Dorset.

Transgression of the Paleogene sediments over the Wetterstein Limestone of the Silicic Superunit, Western Carpathians, Slovakia.

Gibraltar limestone: North face of Rock of Gibraltar.

Austria

• Wetterstein limestone – Regional geologic formation in the Northern Limestone Alps and Western CarpathiansPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

Belgium

• Belgian marble, (not a "true marble"; Devonian limestone)
• Noir Belge
• Rouge Belge

Croatia

• Istrian stone – Type of limestone

France

• Caen Stone – Limestone quarried near Caen, France
• Lutetian limestone – Type of limestone from Paris, or "Paris stone" (city buildings are widely faced with it)
  • Saint-Maximin, or Oise, limestone (variety of Lutetian)
• Pierre de Jaumont
• Tuffeau stone – Limestone rock mined in France, in the Loire Valley

Germany

• Solnhofen limestone – Geological formation preserving rare fossils in Germany
• Wetterstein limestone – Regional geologic formation in the Northern Limestone Alps and Western CarpathiansPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

Gibraltar

• Gibraltar Limestone – Geologic formation in Gibraltar

Ireland

• Kilkenny marble – Carboniferous limestone found in County Kilkenny, IrelandPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets, not a "true marble"; fossiliferous Carboniferous limestone.

Italy

• Red Verona marble – Variety of limestone from Italy, not a "true marble"; fossiliferous limestone

United Kingdom

England:

• Ashford Black Marble – Very fine-grained sedimentary rock (not a "true marble"; Carboniferous limestone)
• Bath stone – Oolitic limestone from Somerset used as a building material
• Beer Stone – Man-made caves in Devon, EnglandPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Clipsham stone – Village in Rutland, EnglandPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets, the famous London Stone is made of this.
• Collyweston stone slate – Traditional limestone roofing material of central England (not a "true slate"; thin-bedded limestone)
• Cotham Marble – Limestone variety from Great Britain (not a "true marble"; stromatolitic limestone)
• Cotswold stone – oolitic limestone used for building and roofing in the Cotswolds
• Dent Marble (not a "true marble"; Crinoidal limestone)
• Frosterley Marble – northern England (not a "true marble")
• Hamstone – Building stone from Somerset
• Headington stone – A limestone from Oxford
• Hopton Wood stone – Type of limestone
• Kentish ragstone, also known as Kentish rag – Hard grey limestone in Kent, England
• Ketton stone
• Pembroke Limestone Group
• Portland stone – Limestone quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England
  • Portland Admiralty Roach – Rock type
  • Bowers Basebed
  • Portland Bowers Roach
  • Portland Grove Whitbed
  • Portland Jordans Roach – Stone variety from the Isle of Portland
• Purbeck stone – Limestone from Dorset
  • Purbeck Marble – Fossiliferous limestone found in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England (not a "true marble"; fossiliferous limestone)
• Sussex Marble (not a "true marble"; fossiliferous freshwater limestone)

Scotland:

• Charlestown limestone – Limestone quarrying in Charlestown, Fife, Scotland

Wales:

• Cymerig Limestone – Geologic formation in Wales

North America

Quarried block of pink Tennessee "marble"

Blue Rock, a Tonoloway Limestone "fin", in West Virginia, USA.

United States

• Anamosa Limestone
• Bear Gulch Limestone – Paleontological site in Montana, USA
• Columbus Limestone – Geologic formation in the United States and Canada
• Cottonwood Limestone – Historic stone resource in the Midwestern United States
• Greenbrier Limestone – Lithostratigraphic unitPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Harrodsburg Limestone – Geologic formation in Indiana, United States
• Heceta Limestone – Geologic Formation in Alaska
• Hokie stone – Grey dolomite-limestone rock found near Blacksburg, Virginia
• Indiana Limestone – Limestone quarried in Indiana, United States (Bedford limestone)
• Jeffersonville Limestone – Bedrock unit in Indiana and Kentucky, United States
• Kaibab Limestone – Geologic formation in the southwestern United States
• Kasota limestone – Type of rock in southern Minnesota
• Keyser Limestone
• Keystone
• Madison Limestone – Geologic formation in the western United StatesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Michigan limestone
• Onondaga Limestone – Hard limestones rock formation in North America
• St. Genevieve marble – Marble found in Missouri (not a "true marble"; oolitic limestone)
• St. Louis Limestone – Mississippian period geologic formation in the Midwest United States
• Tennessee marble (not a "true marble"; crystalline limestone)
• Tonoloway Limestone – Geologic formation in the United StatesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

Canada

• Eramosa marble – Stratigraphic unit of the Lockport FormationPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets (not a "true marble"; bituminous dolomite)
• Ostracod Beds – Stratigraphic Group in Western CanadaPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets (also known as the "Ostracod Limestone")
• Tyndall stone – Trademark of limestone from Canada

Oceania

Australia

• Tamala Limestone – Limestone deposits in Western Australia

New Zealand

• Oamaru stone – Limestone quarried at New Zealand — Hard, compact bryozoan limestone. Granular and creamy white, it usually contains traces of alumina, iron oxide, and silica.

See also

• List of decorative stones
• List of sandstones
• List of types of marble

External links

• Pivko, D. (2003) Natural stones in Earth’s history. Acta Geologica Universitatis Comenianae. vol. 58, pp. 73–86.