Aesthetic Quality Properties of Carbonate Breccias Associated with Textural and Compositional Factors: Marrón Emperador Ornamental Stone (Upper Cretaceous, Southeast Spain)

The aesthetic properties of ornamental stones, including colour, texture, and the presence or absence discontinuities, are influential in their use marketing. This is particularly critical brecciated rocks such as Marrón Emperador (ME) stone, a dark brown breccia dolostone (Upper Cretaceous, southeast Spain). ME shows high chromatic textural variability, which one its most appreciated commercial features. Through petrographic, mineralogical, geochemical colourimetric study samples obtained from quarries, outcrops and/or drilling cores, several quality categories have been established, well relationship between stone with compositional factors. Three main types constitute exploitable lithotect: crackle mosaic packbreccias, rubble floatbreccias. Breccia clasts mainly composed hypidiotopic-idiotopic medium- to coarsely-crystalline dolosparites, microcrystalline dolosparites dolomicrites. Results show that diagenetic processes responsible for colour dolostones, revealing Sr content key factor. darker dolomites always higher content, where other typical chromophore elements dolomites, Fe Mn, do not present this correlation. provides evidence complexity factors features stones.