serpentine - large hand/display specimen of textbook serpentine from the Melones Fault Zone in Placer County, California

Serpentine is a mineral formed by the metamorphism and igneous activity associated with subduction zones, where an oceanic plate is diving below a continent. It is derived from the metamorphism of magnesium-rich peridotite from the mantle. This mineral is the state "rock" of California. Its chemical formula: Mg₆(Si₄O₁₀)(OH)₈

Serpentine's structure is sheets of silica tetrahedrons sandwiching layers of magnesium hydroxide. The magnesium hydroxide layers imperfectly stack with the silica tetrahedron sheets, causing bending of the layers. In most serpentines, these layers form convoluted sheets, well represented in this example. When the sheets bend into tubes, fibers of asbestos are formed.

This textbook specimen was collected from the Melones fault zone in the American River Canyon, Placer County, California, right in the Forty-Niner gold belt.  The black pencil is 5 1/2" long for scale.

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