Carbon dioxide is an important gas in Earth’s environment. In the atmosphere it serves as a greenhouse gas that works to trap and hold heat near the surface of the planet. The process of limestone formation removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it away for long periods of time. This process has been…

In a powdered form, calcite often has an extremely white color. Powdered calcite is often used as a white pigment or “whiting.” Some of the earliest paints were made with calcite. It is a primary ingredient in whitewash, and it is used as an inert coloring ingredient of paint. Pulverized limestone and marble are often…

Marble is an attractive and easily worked rock that has long been used for monuments and sculptures. Its lack of significant porosity allows it to stand up well to freeze-thaw action outdoors, and its low hardness makes it an easy stone to work. It has been used in projects as large as the pyramids and…

Calcite has numerous uses as a neutralizer of acids. For hundreds of years, limestones and marbles have been crushed and spread on fields as an acid-neutralizing soil treatment. They are also heated to produce lime that has a much faster reaction rate in the soil. Calcite is used as an acid neutralizer in the chemical…

The construction industry is the primary consumer of calcite in the form of limestone and marble. These rocks have been used as dimension stones and in mortar for thousands of years. Limestone blocks were the primary construction material used in many of the pyramids of Egypt and Latin America. Today, rough and polished limestone and…

Limestone is a sedimentary rock that is composed primarily of calcite. It forms from both the chemical precipitation of calcium carbonate and the transformation of shell, coral, fecal and algal debris into calcite during diagenesis. Limestone also forms as a deposit in caves from the precipitation of calcium carbonate. Marble is a metamorphic rock that…

Calcite is a rock-forming mineral with a chemical formula of CaCO3. It is extremely common and found throughout the world in sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks. Some geologists consider it to be a “ubiquitous mineral” – one that is found everywhere. Calcite is the principal constituent of limestone and marble. These rocks are extremely common and make up a significant portion of Earth’s crust. They…