asbestiform

{{Short description|Type of crystal habit}}

Asbestiform is a crystal habit. It describes a mineral that grows in a fibrous aggregate of high tensile strength, flexible, long, and thin crystals that readily separate.Committee on Asbestos: Selected Health Effects, 2006, Asbestos: Selected Cancers, National Academies Press, {{ISBN|978-0309101691}} The most common asbestiform mineral is chrysotile, commonly called "white asbestos", a magnesium phyllosilicate part of the serpentine group. Other asbestiform minerals include riebeckite, an amphibole whose fibrous form is known as crocidolite or "blue asbestos", and brown asbestos, a cummingtonite-grunerite solid solution series.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency explains that, "In general, exposure may occur only when the asbestos-containing material is disturbed or damaged in some way to release particles and fibers into the air."{{Cite web|url=https://asbestosremovalbrisbane.com.au/more-information-on-asbestos-removal/|title=More Information on Asbestos Removal|date=2019-07-21|website=Total Asbestos Removal Brisbane|language=en-AU|access-date=2019-07-24}}

"Mountain leather" is an old-fashioned term for flexible, sheet-like natural formations of asbestiform minerals which resemble leather. Asbestos-containing minerals known to form mountain leather include: actinolite, palygorskite, saponite, sepiolite, tremolite, and zeolite.{{Cite web|title=Mountain Leather|url=https://www.mindat.org/min-9168.html|access-date=2021-09-20|website=www.mindat.org}}