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Stone is a natural solid formation of one or many minerals. There are thousands of types of
stone that have been quarried through the centuries.
Quarries are located all around the world. A majority of natural stone comes from
Italy, Spain, Iran, Turkey, United States, Mexico, China, Taiwan, India, Greece, Canada, France, and Brazil.
The minerals in stone came from the same liquid and gas minerals that formed the earth.
The Earth developed as a massive body of gas and liquid minerals that slowly cooled and
condensed to a solid core. Through pressure, the Earth's crust began to form and heavy minerals
were forced down to the core of the Earth where they were trapped. As the crust got thicker, it
squeezed around the inner core which created intense pressure and heat from within the Earth.
Crystals and other solid forms began to grow from the mineral vapors that were being released.
As the Earth's crust began to expand and erode, heat and pressure pushed the solid minerals up to
the Earth's surface which formed colossal rock beds. It took up to one-hundred million years to
form some of these beds. Many of the beds are now used as quarries where the stone is mined.
Most of these minerals can be identified by their color, hardness, and crystal formation.
Crystals come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The wide array of these minerals are often
difficult to identify. Many stones look very similar to each other; however, they are all very different.
It is imperative to know the exact type of stone that is to be maintained. Stone is natural
and may have adverse reactions to certain cleaning chemicals and procedures. Most stones are also
natural alkalis and so are dirt and soil; therefore, stone and dirt are attracted to each other
which often makes cleaning very difficult. This makes the proper selection of cleaning procedures
and chemicals for stone very complex.
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