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Calcite

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Coral and other organisms use

calcite to construct their hard parts.

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A colorful seashell, coneshell, in a few of the beautiful colors of calcite and aragonite.

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Brain coral and sea fans use calcite.

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These calcite pieces, the hard-part remains of organisms, may wash up on a shore and get picked up by a

human, or they may fall to the bottom of the ocean where they will form the

limestone of the future.

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These are microscopic plankton and coccoliths, all calcite-bodied creatures. After they die, their remains falls to the ocean floor, or are dissolved, and eventually help create limestone.

(credit: )

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Travertine deposits near a hot spring. Standing here at Yellowstone in Wyoming, you could almost watch the travertine (calcite) precipitate out of the hot water as it evaporates.

Calcite is easily dissolved in water. This dissolution creates caves and makes water hard. When that water evaporates, the calcite minerals come out of the water to form a solid such as speleothems in caves, travertine near springs, or hard water scum in your bathtub.

Calcite speleothems:

US

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Travertine (calcite) draperies in Mitchell Caverns.

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helictite bush aragonite

frostwork

calcite popcorn

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This river in northeast Iowa is edged with limestone cliffs, formed in an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago.

US

GS

This homeowner in Florida has a sinkhole in her yard due to the dissolution of the limestone bedrock below.

The White Cliffs of Dover, in southeast England. The cliffs are chalk, which is made of microscopic calcitic plankton.

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Chalkboard chalk originally was made from pure calcite “chalk”, but now is mixed with other

minerals.

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Michelangelo's Pieta is made of marble.

Marble is a popular sculpture material made

of metamorphosed carbonate.

Marble exposed to rain can disintegrate, either

by the acidic water dissolving the calcite ions, or by physical

freeze-thaw weathering.

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http://ww

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limestone = a carbonate sedimentary rock made of the mineral calcite

marble = any metamorphic rock that is made up of recrystallized minerals of calcite and/or dolomite

Wait: Calcite? Limestone? Carbonate? Marble?

calcite = mineral calcium carbonate

chemical formula: CaCO3

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carbonate = generic name for any sedimentary rock that is made of deposited carbonate (CO3) minerals, like limestone or dolomite rock

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The Washington monument is made of several different types of marble. Marble is carbonate that was subjected to heat or pressure, or metamorphosed, while buried deep in the earth.

After blocks are cut out of the rock and into the desired shape, they are shipped from the quarries to the construction site by railroad.

Carbonates are very popular building stones.

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Here, 150 tons of limestone dust are added to Laurel Bed Lake to improve pH.

Calcite calms our acidic stomachs.

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Calcium is an important dietary mineral, but the mineral carbonate forms are not absorbed by the human body.

Make sure your dietary supplements are from a food (not a rock) source!

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Water with dissolved carbonate in it,

usually groundwater from carbonate

aquifers, is known as hard water.

Hard water can be

improved by “water softening” treatment.

Hard water causes “scaling”.

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Carbonates, like calcite,

are added to animal feed.

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Carbonate is used as a flux for metallurgy. A flux is a material that melts easily and can be used to remove impurities from metal ores, or that makes the slag produced by metal ore smelting more fluid.

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Carbonates condition soils for home

gardening.

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Carbonate minerals are important to plants. Calcium, from calcite, is utilized by cells in building their cell walls.

Powdered fertilizer is spread on farm fields.

Carbon dioxide from the air, and not

carbonate from rocks, are the main building

blocks of plant life.

Live plants underwater also need fertilizer.

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Carbonate is manufactured into a powdered lime, which is combined with water to form plaster, mortar, and cement.

Plaster is used on walls and in art

Mortar holds bricks together.

Cement and rocks make concrete.

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Carbonates are in concrete as the cement and as rocks. In these pictures concrete masons put the smooth finish on a concrete floor.

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Many buildings and sculptures are made of carbonate, both stone and concrete. We use a great deal of calcite and dolomite in building the hard parts

of our society.

Concrete

Carbonate stone

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Think of all the roads you have ever been on: carbonates make them all possible.

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media rights

Many of the photos in this presentation were obtained through Flickr and Wikipedia.

Funded by FIPSE and by the University of Minnesota. Compiled for Dr. Kent Kirkby, Department of Geology and Geophysics, by Kate Rosok, 2007. Each displayed image

retains its original media rights. For educational purposes only; not to be used commercially.

public domain (none)

© Copyright. All rights reserved

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by-nd

by-sa

by-nc-ndCre

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