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Calcium Carbonate

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is among the most common minerals found on Earth. It is found in fossil remains, limestone, shale, slate, chalk, travertine, and marble, and is the primary component of seashells, snail shells, eggshells and other hard organic substances. It's also the primary component of the mammalian eye lens.

Calcium carbonate has a number of applications besides its natural ones, including as an antacid, lime for farm fertilization, a construction material (marble or cement, for instance), and a base for many pharmaceuticals. You may also find it in ceramic glazes. Chalk is composed of either calcium carbonate or of gypsum, a form of calcium carbonate found naturally in caves. It is used in place of Kaolin in the manufacture of glossy paper.

Most caves are calcium carbonate formations, created when water dripped through limestone cracks, dissolving the stone to form weak carbonic acid from the carbonate. Over hundreds of years, drips of water with suspended calcium have formed flowstone and stalactites and stalagmites in caves. Somewhat different processes form gypsum, a crystalline formation found in caves.

Web Resources On Calcium Carbonate

Calcium Carbonate Data

Book Resources On Calcium Carbonate

Marine diagenesis of shallow water calcium carbonate sediments by Robin G. C Bathurst
The effect of algal photosynthesis on the rate of precipitation and crystal structure of calcium carbonate by Stephen W. Brown

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