Meerschaum, Mg₂Si₃O8.2H₂O, is a clay mineral which belongs to the Sepiolite is currently used in more then 100 different ways in industry.Several deposits of meerschaum have been reported in Turkey.the deposits in Eskisehir province are considered to be most important commercially.They occur in conglomerates as nodules and in stratified detrial limestone.

     The impurities present in Eskisehir's meerschaum are: chert, opalline quartz, sparry calicte, dolomite and clay (probably Mg-smectite and illite) as fracture infills.The deposits were formed in the Central Anatolia basin during.Oligo-Miocene time.Most authors have attributed the origin of meerschaum as a product of the hydrothermal alteration of magnesite and serpentinite.Tradational methods of mining meerschaum in Eskisehir have proven to be most economic.However, the relative shallow depth of the water table represents one major problem in some areas.

    The Eskisehir meerschaum has been used for nearly 200 years in making pipes and other articles for smokers, and small quantities have been used for other purposes, such as decoration, bracelet, necklace, removing stains, and also as thermal insulator material.

    In Turkey, the most common usage of meerschaum is pipemaking, because of its unique properties, such as sorption, chemical composition, white color, good porosity, low specific garavity, catalytic properties and thixotropy.Meerschaum pipes have been exported primarily to the USA, Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Japanese, Greece and other Europen countries.