CA powerpoint

by-nc: Leo Reynolds

Photo courtesy Robert Sawin, KGS

Calcite


E. Eugenia Patten, © CA Academy of Sciences

Eugene Weber © California Academy of Sciences

Eugene Weber © California Academy of Sciences

Coral and other
organisms use
calcite to construct
their hard parts.


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

NOAA/DoC

NOAA/DoC

Brain coral and sea fans use calcite.

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.

NOAA/DoC

NOAA/DoC

NOAA/DoC


Jerry Prezioso, NOAA/DoC

EPA
NASA GFC

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: )

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.

© Marli Miller (Earth Science World Image Bank)

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.


Travertine (calcite)
draperies in Mitchell
Caverns.

USGS

calcite popcorn

helictite
bush

aragonite
frostwork

Wind Cave/NPS

Wind Cave/NPS

Calcite speleothems:


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

USGS

public domain

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

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

by-nc-nd: Ryan Ozawa

by-nd: Matt McGee

by-nc-nd: Monika Hoinkis

by-nc: Lindley Ashline

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


Michelangelo's Pieta is
made of marble.
Marble is a popular
sculpture material made
of metamorphosed
carbonate.

public domain

Marble exposed to rain
can disintegrate, either
by the acidic water
dissolving the calcite
ions, or by physical
freeze-thaw weathering.

Wait: Calcite? Limestone? Carbonate? Marble?

by-nc-sa: mtchm



limestone = a carbonate sedimentary rock
made of the mineral calcite

calcite = mineral
calcium carbonate
chemical formula: CaCO3

carbonate = generic name for any sedimentary rock that is made of
deposited carbonate (CO3) minerals, like limestone or dolomite rock
marble = any metamorphic rock that is made up of recrystallized minerals of
calcite and/or dolomite


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.

Photo courtesy Grace Muilenburg, KGS

USGS

Carbonates are very popular building
stones.


by-nc-sa: Tom Magliery

Calcite
calms our
acidic
stomachs.

by-nc: Roadsidepictures

from the January 1939 Popular Science by-nc-sa: Todd Ehlers

© 2006 VA Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

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


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

by-sa: hobvias sudoneighm

by-nc-nd: Keith Davenport

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


by-nc: Dane Larsen

Hard
water
causes
“scaling”.

Hard water
can be
improved
by “water
softening”
treatment.

by-nc-sa: Alan Penner

by-nc-sa: Lastaii

by-nc: Nofolete / Dane Larsen

by-nc-sa: spike55151

Water with dissolved
carbonate in it,
usually groundwater
from carbonate
aquifers, is known as
hard water.


by-sa: redjar

by-nc: Jane Cockman

by-nc-nd: Maury McCown

by-sa: Peter Huys

Carbonates,
like calcite,
are added to
animal feed.


by-sa: Southern_Comfort

by-nc-sa: BBColin

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.


by-nc-sa: Sarah Serendipity

by: Editor B

by-nc-nd: ~Living the American Dream~

by-nc-sa: edgeplot

Carbonates
condition
soils for
home
gardening.


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

Powdered fertilizer is spread on farm fields.

by-nc-sa: ewanr

Live plants underwater
also need fertilizer.

Carbon dioxide from
the air, and not
carbonate from rocks,
are the main building
blocks of plant life.


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

by: Kumon

by: Alan Levine
by-nc-nd: Oliver Elser & Andreas Muhs

CVC / Architect of the Capitol

Mortar holds
bricks together.

GNU

Plaster is used on
walls and in art

Cement and rocks
make concrete.


by-sa: Beige Alert

OSHA

Cascades Job Corps Center/USDoL

CDC

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


by: Jonny2005

Concrete

by-nc: jabenaki
by-nc-sa: nznomad

by-nc: Andrea Kirkby

Carbonate stone

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.


MN DOT

Caltran

by-nc: Adam Henning

FHA/US DOT

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


by-nc: Leo Reynolds

Photo courtesy Robert Sawin, KGS

Calcite


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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.