Catalog Number:
45490
Specimen Count:
1
Precise Locality:

U.S. 40 near Hagerstown

Locality:
US Mid Atlantic (PA, NJ, MD, DE, DC, VA, WV)
Collecting Locality:
North America, United States, Maryland, Washington County
Cabinet:
25
Drawer/Shelf:
04

Fabric is one way geologists describe how the small-scale components of a rock are arranged with respect to each other. Scientists look at grain size, grain shape, and the distribution of grain sizes within rocks to determine the fabric of those rocks. Sometimes the grains may be oriented randomly with respect to each other. The randomness may indicate that the rock may have formed at high temperatures (a rock called hornfels, for example) or from simple materials (marble, which results from the metamorphism of limestone, a sedimentary rock). Other times, the grains may be aligned in one direction at right angles to the direction of the pressure that helped to change (or metamorphose) the rock. Fabric is one of the many clues that help geologists identify rocks and learn about the history of those rocks.