Serpentine

Decorative stone in architecture: Grades of serpentinite higher in calcite, along with the verd antique (breccia form of serpentinite), have historically been used as decorative stones for their marble-like qualities. College Hall at the University of Pennsylvania, for example, is constructed out of serpentine. Popular sources in Europe before contact with the Americas were the mountainous Piedmont region of Italy and Larissa, Greece. Carvingstone tools, oil lamp-known as the Qulliq and Inuit sculpture: Inuit and indigenous people of the Arctic areas and less so of southern areas used the carved bowl shaped serpentinite Qulliq or Kudlik lamp with wick, to burn oil or fat to heat, make light and cook with. Inuit made tools and more recently carvings of animals for commerce. Swiss ovenstone: A variety of chlorite talc schist associated with Alpine serpentinite is found in Val d’Anniviers, Switzerland and was used for making "ovenstones" (Ger. Ofenstein), a carved stone base beneath a cast iron stove. Neutron shield in nuclear reactors: Serpentinite has a significant amount of bound water, hence it contains abundant hydrogen atoms able to slow down neutrons by elastic collision (neutron thermalization process). Because of this serpentinite can be used as dry filler inside steel jackets in some designs of nuclear reactors. For example, in RBMK series, as at Chernobyl, it was used for top radiation shielding to protect operators from escaping neutrons. Serpentine can also be added as aggregate to special concrete used in nuclear reactor shielding to increase the concrete density (2.6 g/cm3) and its neutron capture cross section.