Asbestos is a silicate mineral that has a reputation as being dangerous. Many co

Question

Asbestos is a silicate mineral that has a reputation as being dangerous.  Many countries including the United States, Canada, and France have outlawed its use in some products and have mandated that asbestos be removed from many buildings at great expense to the public.  It is virtually insoluble and is used to provide tensile strength and moldability, thermal insulation, and resistance to fire, heat, and corrosion; inhalation of asbestos particles can cause asbestosis, pleural plaques, pleural fibrosis, pleural effusion, mesothelioma, and lung cancer.  Is asbestos a single mineral? Asbestos includes chrysotile, amosite, crocidolite, tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite.

A. Do all of these varieties belong to the same general silicate mineral group? If not, how many groups are represented and what are they?

Explanation / Answer

Six mineral types are defined as "asbestos" including those belonging to the serpentine class and those belonging to the amphibole class.

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals,which all have in common their eponymous asbestiform habit: i.e. long (roughly 1:20 aspect ratio), thin fibrous crystals, with each visible fiber composed of millions of microscopic "fibrils" that can be released by abrasion and other processes.They are commonly known by their colors, as blue asbestos, brown asbestos, white asbestos, and green asbestos.

So all of the six varieties of the asbestos are of same serpentine silicate group.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.